La sconosciuta

We have been waiting for Tornatore since Malena, in 2000, and now he has come back with this drama/ thriller, with a rather melodramatic plot inspired by the often very tragic news stories about the exploitation of women from East Europe in Italy. The main character, the Ukranian Irena, played by the wonderful and hardly known Russian stage actress Xenia Rappoport, has something very mysterious about her. She pursues an obscure aim, concerning the young Italian couple whom she works for and their 5 years old daughter. At the beginning the film has something very hitchcockian about it, then it turns to melodrama, with many emotional moments (don't forget your hankies!) There are few very hard scenes, with much violence, mental and physical. Tornatore does the usual good work. In this film he could count on a capital cast, including, besides Rappoport, the cream of the crop of Italian acting: an hairless and extremely sleazy Michele Placido, the very good Claudia Gerini and Pierfrancesco Favino, Alessandro Haber, Piera degli Esposti and Margherita Buy, who agreed to appear just a few minutes by the end of the film. Clara Dossena, the child actress who play one of the key characters of the film, is not only incredibly cute, but also much talented. A very remarkable thing is the score by maestro Ennio Morricone. Some critics said it's too invasive, but God, it's beautiful. I think you will love the sweet and heartbreaking "Lullaby theme". On the whole, a convincing film. Probably the best of the first Roma Film Festival. My rating is 8/10

After a long time, a new Tornatore film. After the second viewing I decided to write a comment about it.

When people talk about a film by Giuseppe Tornatore, they think of Sicily first with it's burning sun and it's orange villages. This is one of his darker films, if not his darkest (on par with Il Camorrista).

As sound as the first fade in of this film appeared, I was hooked. I will not spoil anything, but you'll see some pretty powerful stuff. The story is complicated and important, so giving examples might spoil something, so I focus on the experience of this film itself.

I have never seen most of the actors in this (except Placido), but they all did an amazing job. Kseniya Rappoport is so great in this film that it's just haunting. Her performance is a winner without doubt, but the supportive cast never seems shy to make their emotions as real as they can.

The shots that this film uses are great. All Tornatore films are beautiful, but this one is a real dark gem. As him and few other can do, he makes the world real.

The script is strong. I cannot just define it as a drama, because that is a vague term. It's also a disturbing film with a warm touch (a heartbreaking plot that twists in a good way).

Ennio Morricone wrote the score. I am a great fan of him and I must say that even now, being 77, he is still the top composer in the entire industry. With his score for La Sconosciuta he surprised me. Again. This man is so amazing that I curse the Academy awards every day for ignoring him for more than 40 years.

So is there nothing bad about La Sconosciuta? Yes there is; the DVD is only available in Italy. I bought one with English subtitles so I have little problem watching it, but this can be quite a damper on it's international fame. I hope this one gets a great international release, both in cinema and on DVD. Great pieces of art should not be kept indoors.

I give it 10 out of 10. The best of 2006 and perfect in every way.

Finally an Italian film with an international taste! No married couples going through a difficult period, no stupid pointed remarks to our painful ruling class.

The universe in which "The Unknown" takes place is, first, the shadow world of those sordid, sinister and rude men, who aren't worthy to be called human beings, who bait young girls from the East-European countries with the false promise of a good work in Italy, as waitresses, housemaids, even models. The girls' families pays a lot of money out for their daughters' travel toward the affluence, but, when the girls come to Italy, they soon find out they will never be cover beauties or salaried people: they are forced to prostitute themselves until they reach, with their work, the amount their families paid. Practically, they become slaves, continuously exposed to rapes, strokes, blackmails.

Then, "The Unknown" moves into the comfortable world of a common North Italy town. An incredibly harsh but marvelous film. At the end, I wondered: how many stories like this happen around us and we just aren't conscious.

I did not know anything about the movie except that it was made by the director of Malena (a movie that I did not like that much except its images and story line). I had totally no expectations from this one and I sat wondering what is to come.

The story is about a Ukrainian girl Irina (Russian actress Kseniva Rappoport) who comes from a small village and has a lover who is a construction worker. Due to dreams of becoming rich and famous, she becomes a prostitute and is exploited by a pimp Muffa (Michele Placido), who kills the lover, sells off the newly born child of pregnant Irina and sadomizes & beats Irina in sex work. The movie is extremely mysterious with Irina's past unfolding with tits and bits of flashback while she works as a house maid for a small family – Valeria (Claudia Gerini), her husband Donato (Pierfrancesco Favino) and their daughter Tea (Clara Dossena) - in an Italian city. I won't tell you the whole story here and spoil the great viewing.

Famous Italian Director Giuseppe Tornatore directs this movie after six years of gap and comes out with a winner. The movie has its thrills, drama and emotions that keep the audience on the edge of the seat. There are some disturbing violent and sexual content in the movie.

Kseniva is so beautiful and acts brilliantly throughout – displaying the range of emotions that a few actresses get to enact in their entire career. Michele Placido as Muffa is scary and real mean. The stealer performance is by Clara as a 5 year old daughter who acts naturally. Claudi and Pierfrancesco are also good.

Giuseppe always extracts excellent cinematography and background musical score, so does he this time.

In the last 20 minutes, the movie looses its hold a bit but all in all it is a great movie viewing. I do not know Italian or the Dutch sub-titles – but good movies do not require local language to communicate and good directors are not restrictive with any aspects of constraining mediums of cinema.

That is the brilliance of classical form of movie making! (Stars 7.25 out of 10)

not a false move anywhere in this movie. superb acting/direction. beautifully shot, yet disturbing, troubling, and brutal. a mystery, thriller, love story, but it's not simply about adult love, even though it's present;it has almost mother daughter love. murder, trickery,prostitution, thievery, cruelty, affection. stunning photography, great music, and a plot with believable twists. not a film that cheats the audience with false leads, implausible situations, or idiotic characters. great dialogue, even in the translation. not a car chase, snide, supposedly witty remark in it at all. some scenes are really difficult, but they are short snatches, quickly cut and edited. this one should rank up there with any recent Italian masterpiece.