A Chiara (2021)
Country: IT/FR
Technical: col 121m
Director: Jonas Carpignano
Cast: Swamy Rotolo, Grecia Rotolo, Claudio Rotolo
Synopsis:
A fifteen year-old girl in Calabria has her faith in her family thrown into turmoil by her father's disappearance as a fugitive from justice. She rebels and goes off the rails, but ultimately decides to be responsible for her own future.
Review:
The third in a trilogy of films set in the same Calabrian town, Carpignano's ultimately optimistic treatment of a societal ill, by which families are held in the grip of organised crime through generations, is framed by two eighteenth birthday celebrations. The cast is uniquely dominated by two families of non-professionals, and chiefly the startlingly good performance of the young actress playing Chiara. With the adolescent girl/coming of age sub-genre increasingly popular among directors, however, this one has a hard time distinguishing itself, and the incessant focus on one character inevitably leads to longueurs. In addition, while it is arguable that the lapses in storytelling constitute an aspect of style, the film's ultimate reframe from nuclear family to surrogate family via a time ellipsis can be disconcerting, even if you do know Urbino; significantly perhaps, for an Italian audience, the 'sister' reads a carefully worded poem instead of the 'brindisi' that beset Giulia's party.
Country: IT/FR
Technical: col 121m
Director: Jonas Carpignano
Cast: Swamy Rotolo, Grecia Rotolo, Claudio Rotolo
Synopsis:
A fifteen year-old girl in Calabria has her faith in her family thrown into turmoil by her father's disappearance as a fugitive from justice. She rebels and goes off the rails, but ultimately decides to be responsible for her own future.
Review:
The third in a trilogy of films set in the same Calabrian town, Carpignano's ultimately optimistic treatment of a societal ill, by which families are held in the grip of organised crime through generations, is framed by two eighteenth birthday celebrations. The cast is uniquely dominated by two families of non-professionals, and chiefly the startlingly good performance of the young actress playing Chiara. With the adolescent girl/coming of age sub-genre increasingly popular among directors, however, this one has a hard time distinguishing itself, and the incessant focus on one character inevitably leads to longueurs. In addition, while it is arguable that the lapses in storytelling constitute an aspect of style, the film's ultimate reframe from nuclear family to surrogate family via a time ellipsis can be disconcerting, even if you do know Urbino; significantly perhaps, for an Italian audience, the 'sister' reads a carefully worded poem instead of the 'brindisi' that beset Giulia's party.
Country: IT/FR
Technical: col 121m
Director: Jonas Carpignano
Cast: Swamy Rotolo, Grecia Rotolo, Claudio Rotolo
Synopsis:
A fifteen year-old girl in Calabria has her faith in her family thrown into turmoil by her father's disappearance as a fugitive from justice. She rebels and goes off the rails, but ultimately decides to be responsible for her own future.
Review:
The third in a trilogy of films set in the same Calabrian town, Carpignano's ultimately optimistic treatment of a societal ill, by which families are held in the grip of organised crime through generations, is framed by two eighteenth birthday celebrations. The cast is uniquely dominated by two families of non-professionals, and chiefly the startlingly good performance of the young actress playing Chiara. With the adolescent girl/coming of age sub-genre increasingly popular among directors, however, this one has a hard time distinguishing itself, and the incessant focus on one character inevitably leads to longueurs. In addition, while it is arguable that the lapses in storytelling constitute an aspect of style, the film's ultimate reframe from nuclear family to surrogate family via a time ellipsis can be disconcerting, even if you do know Urbino; significantly perhaps, for an Italian audience, the 'sister' reads a carefully worded poem instead of the 'brindisi' that beset Giulia's party.