Uberto Pasolini
Still Life

STILL LIFE directed by UBERTO PASOLINI DALL’ONDA

I won't dwell too much on sharing my thoughts on this film, which in 2013 won several awards, including Best Director at the 70th Venice International Film Festival in the "Orizzonti" section.

I want to start by mentioning, partly because the notes of the (non-electric) instruments from this soundtrack have stuck in my head and partly because she is almost my peer, let's say she's the age of my younger sister, the one who composed the film's soundtrack: the British Rachel Portman, who accompanies us worthily throughout the film with a truly fitting piece (silences aside). Well, she is a name of great respect with around forty films to her credit from 1990 to today, among which I'd like to mention these ten:

The War of the Buttons, remake from 1994

Smoke, from 1995

Marvin's Room, from 1996

Emma, from 1996, won (first time for a woman) the Oscar for Best Original Score

The Cider House Rules, from 1999

The Legend of Bagger Vance, from 2000

Chocolat, from 2000

Hart's War, from 2002

The Manchurian Candidate, from 2004

Oliver Twist, from 2005

Okay, I'll be brief, actually very brief, just four little things that struck me more than the others: the film closes some doors, one is the job of John May who at only 44 finds himself being laid off from his position as a municipal officer despite the diligence with which he performs his duties, because his boss intends to, um, "cut the deadwood" to save on the budget.

Another is that good John May is a truly habitual type in everything, even in food. A classic of his is "a can of tuna with a slice of toast" at home, while at work "apple" is meticulously peeled in one continuous piece, with various exceptions when he's on the trains during business trips, and that one time he's invited for a bite at a retirement home where a blind ex-soldier lives, he is offered a cup of black tea and (ironically) a, um, can of tuna with a slice of toast…

John May loves his job so much and is so humane that he personally writes what will be read in church during funeral services and almost always will be the only one to escort the poor deceased to their final destination after having tracked down their acquaintances reluctant to attend their funeral.

And finally, in his last mission where privately (since the dismissal is already signed) he takes it upon himself to ascertain once again who the acquaintances are and who will attend the funeral of Billy Stoke, an alcoholic with no family (at least that's how it seems until John May intervenes) and upon leaving the office, he sees the shiny and white Audi of his boss and rightly thinks to stop for a moment to take a well-needed relieving...

The sad but not too exemplary ending I won't tell (as it was already spoiled by the user seeezer on June 24, 2014 around noon here on DeBasio), but despite no one being present at his funeral except the grave diggers with shovels in hand who leave as soon as they've finished covering the hole, um, it happens that…