“Some loves don’t end, they take huge turns and then come back,” he sang Antonello Vendittiso much in love with Rome Stefano Sollima. The director exploded thanks to the series Crime novelTo Gomorrah And SuburaHe returned to his city and covered it in black again. Slowpresented in competition80th Venice Film Festival (ALL our reviews HERE), completes an ideal circle using the best Italian male talent available.
In a Rome in flames and subject to constant power outages (not a dystopian element, just mere news inspiration), at the center of the action is the young man Manuel (Gianmarco Franchini), caught up in what at first glance seems like a very dirty operation. It is supposed to collect compromising photos and videos of a high-ranking figure on behalf of some corrupt police officers (Adriano Giannini And Francesco Di Leva), but changes his mind at the last minute. This begins a hunt that extends into the family and emotional sphere of the boy, the son of a former gangster Magliana band– daytonainterpreted by Toni Servillo.
Along with Pierfrancesco Favino And Valerio Mastandreathe fetish actor of Paolo Sorrentino today forms a legendary criminal triad on the fringes of the scene. «Stray dogs in the dust, abandoned in a corner to die» Favino described them. Daytona suffers from apparent dementia, Pol Niuman (Mastandrea) became blind and camel (Favino himself) was released from prison because he has very little left to live. All three are mere ghosts of what they once were, but when war is at their doorstep, no one backs down because the criminal code of honor is now part of their DNA.
While in the Romanzo Criminale he talked about the beginning of their existence, in the Adagio Stefano Sollima focuses instead on the decline of the Magliana gang. an extremely dark gangster film in which old and new generations fight for their future. In the name of fathers and sons, then, where the former in no way strive for redemption (which is almost never possible in the Roman director’s films), but also do not shy away from the moral obligation to guarantee a better future – or simply a future – for them who come after them.
Fil Rouge in Sollima’s filmography, also in this case The boundaries between good and evil, between crime and justice, tend to become thinner. Those who should enforce the law twist it to contain it in their own raging obsessions, while those who have lived their entire lives outside its scope are capable of unexpected and stubborn acts of love. A dramaturgically very classic development and a genre that finds its biggest Italian fan in the author of Suburra.
All in all, Adagio is his umpteenth foray into the urban action thriller, full of both good and bad, but it has unparalleled technical mastery on its side – in Italy and beyond. Sollima has also exported his fascination with criminal environments (real or distorted). soldier and in Without regrets, films that share with the latter work the same moral ambiguities and, above all, the same rhythm. The title itself suggests the time in which the story progresses: We are far from the adrenaline rushOn the contrary, here the story is told as a slow hunt between ancient animals wise enough and marked by time not to give in to simple impulses.
Everything happens in a peripheral Rome that is never postcard-like and above all, believable in all its darkest aspects. Sollima now seems to be on autopilot when it comes to directing these types of stories, placing them in environments and situations that go well beyond territoriality and instead reach a much more international dimension, films that are solid in every way . And Adagio is no different. Perhaps it lacks the definitive and overwhelming high note, progresses at the same pace, fails (partially) to increase the engine speed and decides to come to an end that is as tragic as it is classic. But not bad: characters, performances and formal care are enough to make it another sure success for one of the most famous and well-known Italian directors in the world.
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