Winner of the Grand Prize of the Jury in Cannes and nominated for the Palme D'Or, Le Meraviglie also received a 12-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Festival. But could that say it all about a film? The answer is ... no.
This is the story of a poor family living somewhere in the Italian country side. The family consists of the father who cannot change his ways, the mother, an aunt and the four daughters. This family follows some very different rules than what we're used to.
They all work together to produce and sell honey as that's what gives them money to survive and even though the father should be the head of the family, in reality Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungu) is the one who runs things. She is the oldest daughter and everyone -except for her father- listens to her as she seems to be the only voice of reason. It all seems to be going well and without much controversy until the day that the family comes across a film crew that shoots a tv commercial starring a beautiful actress (played by none other that Monica Belucci who is great in this one). Gelsomina is starstrucked by the actress but is also tempted by the competition that she is advertizing: a competition that will offer money to the most traditional family in the area. Could this be the miracle they had been waiting for?
Le Meraviglie is a very quiet film and the lack of backround music in addition to the minimum dialogue is at times very disturbing and that was very apparent in the theatre as the audience very often didn't know what to do or how to react and the atmosphere was always a bit uncomfortable. Personally, I liked it -or even better, appreciated it- for what it was...up to 20 minutes before the end when everything became too abstract for my taste. It could have been better.
0 σχόλια :
Post a Comment