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Libero De Rienzo is an actor and we have seen him in "Santa Maradona" and "A/R - Andata e ritorno" by Marco Ponti.
With "Sangue - la morte non esiste" De Rienzo debuts both as an author and as a director.
Stella (Emanuela Barilozzi) and Iuri (Elio Germano) are two half-siblings; Iuri was conceived following a sexual assault suffered by her mother. Iuri has a very particular personality, and the film attempts to narrate the symbiotic but conflicted, ambiguous, and carnal relationship between him and Stella. Iuri is in love with and deeply attached to Stella, who probably loves him in return but struggles to admit it. Iuri sulks because, deep down, he is a child, a child who is afraid, especially of death. And Stella is afraid to leave him alone.
The film is divided into two acts plus an epilogue. In the two acts, the story focuses on Stella first, a lively girl, a dancer, who uses drugs, just like Iuri, who is also a bit crazy and silly, but also an artist and a genius, according to Stella. However, the depiction of the two is told in a rather confusing and chaotic manner.
At the end, there is the "comic epilogue", marked by the introduction of a third character and the effectively comic and grotesque turn the film takes.
The actual ending, however, is quite ridiculous rather than tragicomic, making almost the entire film fall flat and highlighting the aspects that are somewhat in the shadows throughout the film: much rhetoric and the desire to be against pre-established powers - especially the State and the Church - but in a weak and ineffective manner.
The church scene, which was supposed to be the apex of the message, is inconclusive. The editing (handled directly by De Rienzo) is dynamic and throbbing but isn't particularly striking because it mainly emphasizes the confusion, even though the alternation of certain visions, images of particulars, and situations is sometimes suggestive and certainly helped by a beautiful sound design and excellent music, ranging from electronic to post-rock, signed, among others, by Giardini di Mirò and Godspeed you! Black Emperor.
Confusion and lack of depth are the flaws of this film, although the film leaves us with the story, or rather shows us, through images and sounds, the discomfort of two young people who struggle to confront each other and act in a completely surreal and insane world.
Ours.
The film was presented at the Locarno Festival 2005 in the section "Cineasti del presente" and won the Ciak d'oro bello e invisibile 2007.
Country: Italy
Year: 2005
Genre: Drama
Duration: 104 minutes
Director: Libero De Rienzo
Cast: Elio Germano, Emanuela Barilozzi, Luca Lionello, Libero De Rienzo
Production: Mikado Film, Rai Cinema
Distribution: Mikado
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