The Place

Not since My Dinner with Andre can I recall a film set in a single location - now we have this 2017 Italian film The Place, a cafe by that name in which a distinguished-looking fiftyish man holds court at a back table. Supplicants come to him with the problems that most deeply disturb them, and he flips through his thick handwritten notebook to one of the red ribbons - the kind you'd see in a Bible to mark a verse - and tells them what act will bring about what they want.

These acts have nothing to do with their problems - a woman who wants to be prettier is told to steal a very specific amount; a blind man is told that raping a woman will give him sight. But once he pronounces an oracular "deal" he has no alternate solution. They are free not to accept it, or to follow through, but each of them wants their outcome strongly enough to make their pact - at least to begin with.

They stop by to report on their progress, which he records in his notebook. The tasks he assigns often overlap, either by his design or by some hand of providence, and some people get what they ask for, some change their minds and drop the whole thing, and some try to convince him they did as he said - but he tells them they didn't. "How do you know?" A man of few words, he doesn't answer, but we know that they didn't. If they had, something about them would be different.

He is an enigma - we learn the names of some characters, but even in the credits he is Uomo (the Man). He's at The Place when they're setting up in the morning, he's there when the waitress is mopping up at night. As she probes, he admits he doesn't sleep much. We don't see him arrive, we don't see him leave. Sometimes The Place is crowded, other times he's the only customer, and the chairs are upside down on every table except his. Why doesn't he get kicked out? What's his source of funds? He eats and drinks all day, but we never see him pay.

For a man intent on details, he offers few of his own. His supplicants ask him questions, including "Who are you?" which he deflects, returning to why they have come. One character accuses him of being Satan, which he neither confirms nor denies. He displays a lordly indifference to what they think of him - his only concern, once he's assigned their task, is what steps they're taking to complete it.

Is his purpose to awaken conscience, or to demonstrate to people that their desires blot out their morality? Or is he an evil being with the power to grant people's wishes - as long as he gets in trade their compromised integrity? Or is he simply a mirror of a self-absorbed culture in which our happiness is so important we're willing to destroy someone else's to get it?

From a first minute this movie holds all your attention. So unusual plot makes watch until the end no special effects or changing scenery. All actions takes place in cafe, but thanks to characters with their stories you moving to different places as an observer. Many different people come in this cafe for get what you want but in exchange they have to do strange task. Will they be able to make a deal with their principles? We have the opportunity to observe the internal struggle and the consequences of their choice. And the way of their life cross making the plot even more confusing.

The film keeps you engaged from the start, and leaves plenty to think about when it's over. And yet it is neither preachy nor pretentious. It starts off as a film about the things people would be prepared to do in order to achieve their dreams, but it moves on to other themes, such as what you think you need vs. what you really need, being able to live with oneself having achieved something through trickery and evil deeds, or good outcomes eventually arising from people's intentions to actually do bad things. The film does not involve action, it is based around dialogue. But rest assured, it will never bore you, and it will keep introducing twists that will keep you engaged and constantly guessing what will happen next.

The Place is a vivid example of why European cinema will always be relevant. A simple tie is maximum, all the actions of the film take place in one place. Ordinary actors (perhaps in Italy they are known, but I only know Marco Giallini). And dialogues. The whole film rests on them. They are as simple as possible - everything is shot in a regular eight. Nice simple chamber story.

I kind of enjoyed The Place even though it has lots of flaws. The acting and dialogue was spot on and the story had enough twists to keep me interested until the end. The film did however have lots of problems for me. First of all the editing and cinematophy were really dull and I had a very hard time finding a motivation behind certain choices that were made. The soundtrack also didnt work for me at all. The music was very uninteresting and generic, it would probably have worked better with no music at all, or at least with some restraint. The horrible music at the end left me running away from the theatre.

In conclusion: director Paulo Genovese is good at directing his actors and keeping a story interesting like in his previous film Perfect Strangers, but the style of the film was very poor and undermined the potential of the story greatly.