You are in the soul: review of the Netflix film on Gianna Nannini

“Never compromise yourself, you are all you have” the young promise of Italian music writes with lipstick on the mirror Gianna Nannini. Taken from his autobiography My cocksreleased in 2016, the film about the life of singer reveals all in the title change. It’s true, his “business” is there, but the screenwriters Cosimo Calamini and Donatella Diamanti, with the director Cinzia TH Torrini, have chosen a softer, even reassuring line, despite the harsh topics covered. From that title rockunpredictable, as is the singer of Sienawe then moved on to You are in the soulone of his songs most famous. The final proof came from the primary source: when asked why that song was chosen as the title of a film about her story, Nannini says: “Because this song always makes everyone feel better. It represents a loss and we all have one“. Too bad: an artist like her would have deserved a much more complex story. We understand why it isn’t in the review of Sei nell’anima, on Netflix from May 2nd.

If the book The starting point is almost a psychotherapy session, in which Nannini talks about himself at full speed, also revealing tragic parts of his own experience, such as the death of a friend from an overdose at the beginning of his arrival in Milan to try his luck as a songwriter and, above all, the serious nervous crisis he had during the making of thealbum that would lead her to success, Latin loverreleased in 1982, in film by Cinzia TH Torrini everything is sweetened, faded. The salient facts of the artist’s career are piled up one after the other like stickers, without giving them any depth. It almost seems as if the screenwriters have deliberately chosen not to construct the dramaturgy of the story: everything seems to happen suddenly and almost by chance in You are in the soul.

Yet interesting and strong things have happened in the existence of one of the most important singer-songwriters in Italy, unique in her genre, always too little celebrated compared to her importance in the musical panorama of our country. Nannini was in fact a girl from 1954 who, in an era in which there was still no talk of female emancipation (women voted for the first time only eight years before her birth!), chose to rebel against her father, leader of a confectionery company, who wanted her to work with him, to follow his dream. Alone she went to Milan, alone she obstinately proposed the songs written, sung and played by her, when in fact most of the artists were simply performers. Not only that: Nannini is among the very few to have played rock in Italy, among the first to have adopted a androgynous look, LGBTQ+ iconpartner of a woman for 40 years, mother at 50. There were plenty of things to tell to build an exciting and even a little wild story. Instead we are faced with a Rai fiction photographed like a teen drama. Complete with digital rain to underline the dramatic moments. Unfortunately, there was a bit of compromise.

Letizia Toni is Gianna Nannini

From a cutting-edge and reckless platform, which has created innovative products such as House of Cards, BoJack Horseman, Sense8 and The OA, Netflix is ​​increasingly transforming itself into a branch of Rai. The “novelty”, however, lies in giving everything a more international package: the one that is the most popular at the moment is, as we were saying, the style teen drama. That is, dark photography, digital rain, shouted scenes, whispered phrases, pounding music, frenetic editing (speaking of assembly: The source material was three hours, then cut in half. We don’t know what happened in post-production, but it’s information that raises questions.) It matters little whether the true story of Gianna Nannini is told or the literary success of the moment is brought to the screen: between You are in the soul and Maker of Tears (review here) there is no difference.

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And it’s really a shame that even the rocker of Italy has suffered this flattening of taste which is now increasingly widespread and rewarded by the algorithm. She was the one who always stood out from the crowd. Luckily there is an element to save: the protagonist Letizia Toni. L’actress, also Tuscan, stands out for her charisma and talent: she sings in most of the scenes, after having studied the right breathing with Nannini. The movements and the looks are perfect: Toni has studied the character well, without however falling into a parody or “such and such a show” effect. Unfortunately, however, her skill is not enough to revive a soulless project, despite the title.