Nuovo Olimpo

On 22 October 2023, after the opening of the Rome Film Festival on 1 November 2023, Ferzan Özpetek's film was released on Netflix.

He wrote the script together with his old friend Gianni Romoli.

The release date of the film was not chosen randomly. The story of the film begins 30 years ago on 1 November.

Özpetek's films are divided into two categories.

A) films with a Turkish crew in whole or in part b) Films with an all-Italian crew.

This film is in the second section.

Ferzan is an incredibly good director and storyteller...

He painted a magnificent 70s Italy and both the background and jukebox music represent both the period and the spirit of the film well.

In 2023, I hope Netflix Italy will continue to surprise us with the second Ferzan Ozpetek film.

The film highlights an interesting point with its scenario that focuses on two men who meet and fall in love in 1970s Rome and spend the next 30 years looking for each other.

It is an interesting detail that the entire world lives in the same feelings between the 1940s and the eighties...

They dressed similarly, watched similar films, fell in love with similar songs and experienced similar political movements.

Sociologists should study this.

In this context, Italy, especially in the background of the first half of the film, will not be foreign to many people.

So many reasons to like it , from main actors work ( Luisa Ranieri offers a gorgeous portrait of Titti ) to the 70 decade atmosphere, to the humor and, especialy admirable elegance are good reasons to see it. Again.

Because it is one of films using as efficient kick for return across personal memories about encounters and old stories who, after decades, are more fresh or present than in moments when they are real facts.

But the real good point is the wisedom to not propose a manifesto, a lesson or a moral. Only a story about intense love of youth , an accident changing everything, the profession as way of succes .

Sure, the physical beauty of Andrea di Luigi and Damiano Gavino is a not insignificant virtue, but the gift for viewer remains the clever manner to craft a story using smart the cliches of a remarkable director.

The gay crust is just splendid used for a clear- tender- nostalgic state of heart .

So, not bad idea to see it.

In 1978, the Istanbul-born director Ferzan ÖZPETEK came to Rome. And that's exactly when his semi-autobiographical film, which he directed for the global streaming platform NETFLIX, takes place.

At the end of the 1970s, Rome and its CINECITTA were the center of the European film industry. Filmmaking is becoming a little more difficult (especially due to the increasing popularity of television in Italy), but CINECITTA can still draw on the triumphs of the past. Classics like IL GIARDINO DEI FINZI-CONTINI show the resolute Titti (great: Luisa RANIERI) in her arthouse cinema NUOVO OLIMPO in the north-east of Rome. The cinema is particularly popular as a meeting place for homosexual men who use the toilet for extensive cruising. The film student Enea (Damiano GAVINO) and the medical student Pietro (Andrea Di LUIGI) also get to know and love each other. The beginning of a great love! But times in Rome back then were extremely complicated for various reasons, as we know from numerous genre films from ItaloCinema. Due to a particularly stupid coincidence, the two young men lose sight of each other. It wasn't until many years later that they met again under dramatic circumstances. The ophthalmologist Pietro is now married to the beautiful Giulia (Greta SCARANO), and the celebrated film director Enea is in a relationship with the robust Antonio (Alvise RIGO)...

Beautiful images from Rome (filmed primarily in the Monte Sacro district on the eastern bank of the Tiber), a romantic love story between two men and a wonderfully nostalgic look at the Italian film world! Despite minor weaknesses in the script, Ferzan ÖZPETEK has managed to create a fairytale-like look back at a bygone era.

Damiano Gavino and Andrea de Luigi are the two splendid protagonists of this wonderful retro-modern melodrama.

I was partially familiar with the Turkish/Italian director Ferzan Ozpeteck. Years ago I saw his Le Fate Ignoranti - titled in the USA with the unimaginative His Secret Life - I remember loving it. His Nuovo Olimpo belongs to the same universe but miles apart. I saw the film last night and I keep thinking about that ending. Did I see what I think I saw? I was completely taken be the gazes of the two actors. I believed it, totally, but I'll see it again, soon. A surprise and a delight. Thank you.

Gorgeous Rome makes the perfect setting for this story of romance, lost love, nostalgia, melancholy and the "what ifs" of life. I absolutely loved this quiet, understated, touching film. Two beautiful men meet, in a way that gay and bi men often used to have to meet, and they experience a brief, passionate romance that stays with them all of their lives.

Excellent acting, cinematography and direction is enhanced with some beautiful lines of dialogue. Most people, as they get older, can probably relate to the feeling you get when you remember that love that somehow got away but stays in your heart and your memory forever.