Ohrensausen

Have you ever found yourself walking city streets, surrounded by millions of strangers, wondering if everyone except yourself is going mad? Marcello, the hero of this comedy, is. Something about his world is wrong, he feels it, we feel it, too, but neither can point towards the reasons or explanations. People die, people get entangled in others business, ATMs malfunction, street performers do their shtick, modern life is absurd.

Do we accept it and walk on smiling? Do we revolt? Or do we retreat into solitude, believing we alone hold the key to this absurd world and everyone else is a loon?

Aseptically shot we get a smooth introduction to these questions. Not a philosophical masterpiece but much deeper than I initially expected. And while the frame on the screen and our mind widens, the big question narrows down: Once you realised how absurd life is - Do you want to isolate yourself in arrogance or face each day with a smile?

What a nice surprise. I picked this movie during last year's "weeks of the Italian film" in my hometown's repertory cinema and went to the movie theatre. When it started, I was quite flabbergasted by its almost square picture size. That it would be in black and white I had known beforehand but I had not read about this odd antiquated image format. It took me a while to realize that the format was actually widening gradually during the story and served as a stylistic device to illustrate the slow change of the main protagonists' mindset. From this point on, I threw away my last reservations, which was not a hard thing to do because of the movie's quality in acting and telling an odd story.

Have you ever had the feeling that the world around you has become insane and that you are the only one that still has his wits about. If so then you should be familiar with the main protagonist's experience as he stumbles through a day in Rome. Hardly any reproach on him from my side for being square as some of the scenes are truly bizarre. Many of them, however, come quite close to real life or may even seem perfectly true like the compulsion of many people to share selfies or the thoughtful seriousness in behavior when having an encounter with spacy modern art.

It is mostly scenes like these, which make the movie also a fun movie, because a problem shared is a problem halved. I also could not help laughing out loud when the main protagonist accidentally meets his elderly mother on the streets, who is kissing around with her new boy-friend. The first thing she says when recognizing her son is: "Amore, hai mangiato? Oh darling, have you eaten yet?" Anyone, who has never heard this phrase from his mother despite being a grown up?

I personally do not fully go with the movie's final suggestion that opening up to the growing craziness around is the way to follow in order to avoid isolation, as it is equally important to stay critical and to remain true to oneself. Still, a clear recommendation.

Marcello wakes up with a annoying whistle in his ears and with a message from his girlfriend Alice tells him that his friend Louis is dead, but he does not remember his existence. This is the plot on which this particular and intelligent comedy develops, very cheap (about 150,000 euros, less than a third of a low budget movie) but very well both in technical and narrative terms. Already the size of the image is particular: the film starts with a square format of 1:1 and then goes to the classical 1.85:1, this choice is not random and is closely related to the narrative plan and the development of Marcello's story but not I say something else to avoid spoiling it. The film is shot in a great black and white I do not know how about stylistic choice and how much for lack of funds anyway the result is great, photography along with the assembly (very dynamic especially in the first part) and the beautiful soundtrack are combined in a very fluid and pleasant way. I have to say two words about the cast that is top-notch and seems to have moved the whole project to the point of giving up its remuneration, the characters are very well-defined and there are many comic scenes and funny finds. Above all, the choice of secondary characters seems to be very good, contributing to the success of absurd gags, often mute, in which the only faces or looks of the characters induce a smile or a laugh. In short, this film is funny,intelligent, never vulgar or unguarded, and this is another point in favor of this second work. Now let's go to what I think least works in this great film, the second part loses much of the rhythm we've seen in the first part and the dialogues are lengthy and sometimes become almost repetitive as Marcello's final monologue expires in a moralism typical of a certain Italian cinema. Even some gags, as veritable and fun, are perhaps a bit forced to risk slipping into the snout. Overall, however, it is a movie to be seen, fun and desecrating at the right point that in my opinion will become a little cult movie.