Il Buco

IL BUCO (The Hole) (2022) Michelangelo Frammartino's third film is another of his minimalist wonders. All are set in his beloved Calabria, and, like his previous QUATTRO VOLTE, is concerned more with terra firma and the animal world than the humans that populate it. Filmed as documentaries, but, with an almost invisible narrative structure. Frammartino's films are akin to: What if Fredrick Wiseman made nature docs. No narrator. Almost invisible editing. No real dialogue.

It is 1961 and Italy is erecting the then tallest building in the nation in the prosperous northern city of Milan. Meanwhile, in the poorer southern region of Calabria, a group of spelunkers is exploring what turns out to be one of the world's deepest natural holes.

Even when the explorers are on camera, they are almost always shown from a distance, with the land and the farm animals providing the frame of reference. The exception are the native sheep herders who go about their daily lives almost oblivious to the scientific expedition occurring on and below their very landscape. In Frammartino's framing, they are part of the natural surroundings.

The cinematography by Renato Berta is extraordinary, both from a purely aesthetic as well as a physical and logistical standpoint. His camera follows the speleologists all the way down into the depths of the cave, step by step. The viewer feels as if they are descending along with the squad. Above the surface, Berta's work is no less impressive, capturing the audience's eye without ever being showy: Whether it's a small group of villagers watching a TV documentary on the building's construction (the only 'dialogue' in the entire film), the daily lives of the farmers, the fine details of the evolving map of the cave, or the farm animals grazing in the afternoon. The camerawork is never obtrusive, nor calls attention to itself. The sound department equally adds to the immersion that Frammartino is so carefully constructing. There is no musical score, the world creating its own organic soundtrack. The effect is mesmerizing if you can give yourself over to its rhythms.

IL BUCO is an exceptional cinematic experience for adventuresome film-goers.

P. S. By coincidence, on the very same day I wrote this, Experimental filmmaker Michael Snow (Wavelength) passed away. It's interesting to compare how Frammartino's films echo Snow's in that the very act of viewing their films makes one a participant in the very meaning of the work. RIP.

Beautiful shots, very atmospheric. If that's your thing.

The film itself is very boring however. It doesn't have almost any dialogue which adds to the magical and idyllic atmosphere of the movie but also makes it drag on.

"The cave is majestically captured by state-of-the-art digital camera in its visually and aurally pristine condition, its claustrophobic, running-out-of-oxygen setting is constantly countervailed by a paralleled subplot about an aging shepherd, whose cattle grazes nearby the site, the close-ups on his wizened and soon moribund visage are the closest ones of Frammartino's subjective projection. Yet, what is the correlation between the spelunking and the shepherd's bucket-kicking process? THE HOLE is coyly noncommittal."

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I think Il Buco is one of those films that you either connect with or you don't, and I most definitely did. There's no dialogue but instead the viewer kind of 'overhears' that conversations are taking place amongst the characters bet are yet completely indiscernible. We can notice by the sounds of laughter if it's a happy or playful conversation, or within the context of the visuals what might be communicated. It kind of makes you realize that the specific words aren't really important, just the end, final message and what was the consequential action that resulted from it. There's two stories, one of the speleologists exploring this as yet unknown cave in Italy and an older shepherd who observes the proceedings. Visually it's quite beautiful. The 'story' or message being told harder to articulate, trickier to detail, but like the treatment of the dialogue itself, my lack of being able to communicate those specifics doesn't matter, all I can say is that I was moved by Il Buco and enjoyed every moment of it.

"Il buco" is a film on its own terms and rights. The pace is mostly slow and without the fast frame-cutting we all know from modern action movies. And thankfully so, 'cause this film is not an action movie with a traditional plot. It's also daring in not spending time on traditional dialogue, which in its place naturally asks for something else. And this is where "Il buco" shows its strengths. The film is made like a time-travel back to 1961 where the camera is our eyes to just show us what may have happened when an expedition was sent out to discover new territory. The story-telling pace may seem extremely slow - at least when comparing to traditional modern films, but again: this is no such thing! You need to adjust your attention to things along the way. The challenges the expedition meet are described via the pace and the natural physical conditions, not unlike the first moon landing - and that pace is precisely balanced with the untouched soil they are about to uncover, so you also understand it's a story about the meeting of cultures and the meeting of a then modern world and an ancient timeless world. Unware of their imposing presence, the expedition changes an unknown locality for all time to come and this is shown in a parrallel story-line in a gentle and sophisticated way that goes hand in hand with the main story about the cave.

This is a film for people who enjoy other ways of expression and the force of story-telling that is an inherent part of images alone.

Do yourself a favour not to expect "Spiderman XXII", "Wrath in the Hole", or "Trump Goes Berserk, part 24" [...] - it's not that type of film. Instead, expect "Il buco", a film about existentialism, human curiosity, a drive to discover the unknown planet Earth in a subtle, poetic and realistic way.

A truly recommended experience.