Giuseppe Tornatore
Baarìa

Last night I watched BAARIA, with much curiosity and enthusiasm already as the ticket was torn.

Unfortunately, in short, I have to say that I did not like it. Not as much as I would have expected, at least.

I found it somewhat "fake" and inconsistent, unfortunately, a bit too tailor-made, because the start is excellent but then it loses its way by putting too many things in the pot between themes and characters, with the result that instead of being filled with meanings, the film is emptied of them.

Also in the choice of the many actors involved in the acting there are some things that clash, for example Ficarra and Picone and Gullotta are certainly very talented but they only end up reprising their well-known comedic characters from Zelig or similar shows, transposing them into the film and not acting a part detached from them. This makes their performance a "caricature", funny but nothing more. And surely there are laughs during the screening, with witty remarks that are pleasant to hear, despite the sometimes challenging dialect.

Surely Tornatore has crafted a film aiming for the Oscar, and it is clearly shot with that in mind: the splendid photography, the beautiful shots reminiscent of the old school of the Great Cinema (à la Fellini, à la De Sica), the story of true cinema, in short—already seen in Nuovo Cinema Paradiso—but by the end credits one feels a bit disappointed, and this feeling (from the comments heard) was shared more or less by everyone who attended our screening last night. Which is not insignificant.

Surely for the islanders who have lived and live in that land it will be different, being their land, but for me, a cinema-loving national but coming from another region, it left a bit of a bitter taste.

Let me know....