European Films

The 29th edition of the Villerupt Italian Film Festival in the North of France concluded this weekend, with the vote of the main jury going to Billo, il grande Dakhaar (Billo, the Grand Dakhaar) from Laura Muscardin, while the press jury opted for Kim Rossi Stuart's directing debut Anche libero va bene (Along the Ridge). Billo, il grande Dakhaar is a comedy about a Senegalese immigrant in Italy and features music from Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour. It is the second film about African immigrants in Italy to take Villerupt's top prize, after last year's Sotte il sole nero (Under the Black Sun) from Enrico Verra.

 

The favourite of the press jury, Anche libero va bene from and with Kim Rossi Stuart, went on general release in France with the title Libero last Thursday. The somewhat awkwardly paced if impressive drama focusses on a young boy (played with astonishing intensity by Alessandro Morace, who was a guest at Villerupt) who tries to cope with his demanding father (Rossi Stuart) and the sudden return of his mother (Slovakian-born actress Barbora Bobulova).

 

The true revelation of the festival was its closing film, Maurizio Sciarra's Tolstoy adaptation Quale Amore (The Kreutzer Sonata), which was honoured with the Amilcar du festival or Special Festival Prize. Quale amore reimagines Tolstoy's story of uxoricide in Lugano, Switzerland, where a young broker (Giorgio Pasotti) falls in love with a breathtakingly beautiful concert pianist (Vanessa Incontrada), who will give up her career in order to marry him and raise their children. But her passion for music remains undiminished, and her musical evenings, which are frequented by mostly male artists, drive her husband mad with jealousy.

 

Sciarra, who also cowrote the fairly faithful adaptation with  Claudio Piersanti, finds the perfect rhythm for his tightly narrated story that is told explicitly from Pasotti's character's point of view. The young actor's performance is equally tightly controlled and, like the film, has been reduced to its essence without losing any of its ambiguity or deeper meanings.

 

Further awards included the Audience Prize for Fausto Brizzi's genial boxoffice hit Notte prima degli esami (Night Before Finals), while the youth jury demonstrated maturity with their pick of Gianluca Maria Tavarelli's look at love for the over-40 crowd called Non prendere impegni stasera (Don't Make Any Plans for Tonight). More than 40.000 visitors and over 300 screenings this year confirmed Villerupt's status as one of the most important showcases of Italian cinema outside of the country itself.

 

Related items:

>Film review of Anche libero va bene (Along the Ridge)