The (thousand) Christmas films

It was inevitable that, after a long wait, a truly remarkable number of new films awaited the release during the Christmas period. Here just a choice among the many:

I FRATELLI DE FILIPPO by Sergio Rubini: almost a sequel to Here I laugh by Mario Martone, the excellent work released in September. Rubini's film follows the three De Filippo brothers (Titina, Eduardo and Peppino) at the start of their career in 1930s Naples. A portrait of talent as an inheritance handed down from father to children with the risk that professional and private life inevitably come into conflict.

DIABOLIK by the Manetti brothers: the film collects everything that the Italian cinema industry expects to recover from the popular comic series. Luca Marinelli, Valerio Mastandrea and Miriam Leone in a period noir story set in the 1960s between Milan and Bologna.

SPIDERMAN by Jon Watts: another ace for the superhero of the Marvel universe most loved by young people. The very bad Octopus and Electro in league with Peter Parker / Tom Holland.

CRY MACHO by Clint Eastwood: A former rodeo star finds a way to bring the little son of her former boss away from his alcoholic mother back from Mexico. During their journey, man finds redemption by teaching the boy what it means to be a good person. The quintessence of the stories of 90-year-old Clint: now a genre of its own.

WEST SIDE STORY by Steven Spielberg: 50 years after its theatrical release, the most classic of US musicals is back, directed by the most classic of directors, Steven Spielberg. Everything as before except that this version restores the order of the songs used in the theater - then changed for the cinema - in the first stage on Broadway.

HOUSE OF GUCCI by Ridley Scott: a story so true it seems absurd about the family that founded the Gucci fashion house. Revenge and murder between the unbridled ambitions of a handful of actors such as Lady Gaga, Jeremy Irons, Al Pacino, Adam Driver, Jared Leto.

ILLUSIONI LOSTUTE by Xavier Giannoli: probably the title to bet on, in competition at the last Venice Film Festival. Inspired by Balzac's masterpiece, Lucien is a young poet in search of fortune. He has high hopes for his future, leaving the family printing house and trying his luck in Paris, under the wing of his patron. Rejected by aristocratic society for his humble origins, he finds himself alone, penniless, hungry and humiliated and seeks revenge by writing controversial articles. Within the coveted Paris, he finds a cynical world where everything - and everyone - can be bought and sold. A story of two centuries ago that appears more relevant than ever, demonstrating what Italo Calvino wrote: "A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say".

NP Dicembre 2021

Davide Bracco