A heat out of season, an unrecognizable Rome, a film that burns of anxiety, faith, desire and inner catastrophes: on July 12 arrives on Rai 3 I told yousecond work of Geneva Elkann. A film that has left its mark on international festivals, from Toronto at the Rome Film Festivaland who now lands on TV in the first absolute view.
It is a rare occasion. An Italian film of international scope, with a stellar cast and a style that challenges the boundaries of the traditional story. I told you It is grotesque, visionary, disturbing. An ode to human fragility that moves between anomalous heat and family neuroses.
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi She is a woman obsessed with a film star forbidden to minors. Valeria Golino plays that actress, tired, botulinum, melancholy. Alba Rohrwacher He is a mother on the edge of the collapse, while Riccardo Scamarcio He is his ex, unable to save her. To counterpoint: Danny Huston in the role of a former toxic priest, e Greta Scacchi as sister in mourning. The cast also includes Marisa Borini, Sofia Panizzi e Andrea Rossi.
The only Italian film selected in competition at Toronto International Film Festival 2023, I told you He was welcomed as a work outside the box. Then traveled to the Rome Film Festivali Silver tapes, Italy Israel cinema e Cinema Made in Italy. A real European tour, for a film that speaks a universal language: contemporary discomfort. The soundtrack is signed by Riccardo Senigalliawhile the photograph of Vladan Radovic It envelops the city in pastel and blurred tones, restoring the oppressive feeling of an unlivable Rome. A capital that becomes a mirror of his lost souls.
Rai 3, a hallucinated vision that changes the way of telling Italy
I told you It comes from an anxiety. The one he caught Geneva Elkann In a torrid Rome, while reflecting on climatic catastrophes and the need for redemption. During the pandemic, the director wrote the film remotely with Chiara Barzini e Ilaria Bernardini. Zoom after zoom, a six -handed script took shape, sharp and very human.
The film takes place on an anomalous January weekend. The heat is so intense that it seems apocalyptic. Nobody can breathe. Nobody manages to lie to himself. Elkann’s men and women hide behind loves, drugs, religion, food, sick affections. But the heat discovers them. Reveals them. Forces them to look at each other. In this atmosphere from the end of the world, the themes of the film explodes: imperfect maternity, dysfunctional families, religious obsessions, fears never resolved. The tone is that of dark comedy. But there is also something deep, poignant, which recalls Pedro Almodóvar And the best European cinema.
Many have compared I told you a Drought Of Paolo Virzì. Both tell a Rome to collapse. But Elkann goes further: embraces the surreal, plays with excess, makes everything grotesque and poignant together. The result is a movie that it does not leave you indifferent. Don’t console you. Question you. I told you has already influenced Italian cinema. It fits into an increasingly stronger vein: that of choral moviesvisually bold, which tell the present with dystopian and poetic tones. Next to Adagioa The last night of loveis one of the titles that most marked this new decade.
The film divides. Some find it chaotic, excessive, difficult to digest. But this is precisely its value: does not compromise. It does not seek easy applause. It is a pure authorial gesture, which shows how much Italian cinema knows still surprising. On July 12, on Rai 3, in the early evening, this courageous work arrives in everyone’s homes. Maybe he won’t like those who seek lightness. But those who want a film that turns on questions, emotions, nerves and heart, will do well not to lose it. I told you It’s more than a movie. It is an experience. And now it is just a remote control.
