Le meraviglie

'Certe cose non si possono comprare'. 'Certain things you can't buy'. It's not often that one line from the script summarizes the whole film. But when the beekeeper Wolfgang speaks these words, he explains exactly what this film is about.

'Le Meraviglie' shows the life of a family of Italian beekeepers, intent on living a simple, rural, pure life, without any harmful influences from the outside world. Father Wolfgang and mother Angelica raise their four daughters according to strict rules: no television, no fancy clothes, no luxury. They have trouble making ends meet, and the father is a demanding man, who lets the children work in the honey-making business as if they were grown-ups. This is not a happy family: the father is ill-tempered and the mother is worried about the financial difficulties they have to cope with.

When the oldest daughter decides to participate in a contest for regional agricultural products, the family is forced to enter a world of commercial marketing and fancy promotion. This is the moment when the father tells a television show hostess that certain things are impossible to buy. He doesn't say what exactly, but it's clear what he means: integrity, purity, simplicity, and authenticity.

This is not a plot-driven film. It shows the confrontation between ideals and constraints, between dreams and reality. The film maker doesn't take sides. The commercial contest, representing the modern world, is ridiculous because of its slick sales pitch. But the life on the farm, representing tradition, is not happy and carefree either.

'Le Meraviglie' is filmed in an unpolished, realistic style, almost like a documentary, with bright lighting and hand-held cameras. The undisputed star of the film is the young actress playing the oldest daughter, an innocent girl who seems torn between loyalty towards her father and despise for his strict rules.

Saw this at the Film Fest Ghent 2014, expecting something remarkable or novel, given what Cannes jury had to say about it. Alas, for me it failed on several counts, mainly because I don't think that throwing in an ample variety of ingredients does produce a good stew. It seems that the film makers tried to follow a complicated recipe, but could not come to a consistent and balanced product. The best example of something completely out of tune was the bee produced by Gelsomina out of her mouth on two occasions, the last one as part of the TV show she signed up her family for. It should be possible to find something better for this purpose, and still having a relationship with their bee keeping business where it was all about.

The synopsis on the festival website stated that Gelsomina was the center of the bee keeping business, and particularly the honey extraction process, but I found that not so clearly shown while watching the movie. Yet she is mentioned several times as "head of the family", while all signs seem to point in different directions. Also, when the boy Martin is introduced, everyone points to Gelsomina as the responsible person, and again I don't understand as it is the father who introduced the boy in the first place. I apparently did miss something important.

An annoying aspect of this movie is that it happened a few times that the scenery jumped to several hours later in time, without being clear about the change. For example: after the day that the boy was lost on the island, we suddenly see Gelsomina in action on the farm, requiring us to take some time noticing we are at a different time and place now, and adjust our focus accordingly. It happened to me several times, but this was the most prominent occurrence that I still remember.

While this film's Grand Prize of the Cannes jury rises expectations, I'm disappointed because of my overall feelings that the end product is not in any way remarkable, all things considered. It happened many times before that I didn't agree with festival juries, however, so this may become a fact of (my) life. It may be so that the jury admired the portraying of life on a farm, being a non-issue for me grown up on a farm myself. So all the tedious tasks and the inherent dangers in animals and machinery were merely deja-vu for me, nothing out of the ordinary. Similarly, the mixed household and the assortment of very different people having to work together, is normal on a farm and standard operating procedure. In other words, I'm prejudiced in duplicate, on one hand to find something that the Cannes jury found remarkable, on the other hand seeing a portrait of farming that offers nothing special for me. I'm inclined to forget about the jury and let aforementioned faults weigh in to arrive at a negative conclusion.

I just finished watching this film and I must say that the naturalistic style is very well done in this one. There is a certain tension in the air, even tough nothing happens most of the time on the exteral world but everything is going on inside their heads. The idea of everyday life of people who are anonymous is there, and how that may become source material of appreciated ruins with what they leave behind is in the same vein as La Chimera. There is a certain charm of the italian countryside that becomes evident and I would thoroughly recommend it for anyone who loved La Chimera and needs more context on the subjects that this director loves to explore.

A candid but still rather mystical vision of agrarian life.

We get a strong and very believable depiction of a family that lives in each other's pockets and life is just working and hoping you don't mess anything up.

Then a glimpse of glamour emerges and that basically fuels the plot. The characterization is simple but effective and I was quite on edge for one scene (you'll know it when you see it).

Ultimately it's a celebration of the mundane struggle where if nothing else you have your family but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its moments of strange images that really stay with you.

I begin by saying it was a sweet little Italian movie. It is not here to entertain you, but to give an alarming message. The world's human population is growing rapidly, but within, the farmer's counts are shrinking. Hunger will be one of the future's biggest concerns to deal. This film is about a farmer family that depicted from the perspective of what's causing for the people like them to disappear. There are a very few movies on this theme, in that, all the farmer's movies won't illustrate harvesting and hardworks rather focuses on romance, revenge and other subplots. I think this was true to what it was promised and you would feel glad watching this if you are capable to realise the facts.

A 12 years old girl, Gelsomina, with her parents and three younger sisters lives in a rural Italy. They are the bee farmers, living with a strict order of the life, especially when it comes to the profession. And this story was told from the Gelsomina's viewpoint about everything she and her family goes through. After her father who got no son, she has to carry on the family's tradition to the next generation. She's absolutely on it as she's naturally gifted and stronger than anyone in the family, including her father who's no match for her. Moreover, she's already running the family with moral. But when they reach a crossroad, some unexpected decisions have to be made which is basically the remaining portion.

"You would need a slave. Instead of 4 daughters."

I can't say it is a must see, because it is still a movie and looks for an opportunity in between to amuse you. Either, it is not afraid to unfold the reality, that's the best of this film. It had an amazing cast, but I don't know anyone of them, of course, except Monica Bellucci in a cameo. Cinematography was great, they were not trying to seduce the viewers with the beautiful countryside scenic rather presenting as it is. Beside the film let you know about bee keeping and honey extraction. It is not an easy job, thinking bees do all the work and we just snatch it using protection costume. But surrounding environment and all matters. There's no CGI, some of the dangerous scenes were shot under the guidance of the real pros with a specialised documentary crew.

It proves a coming-of-age story can also be told in this manner. Urbanising, hunters, tourism influx, name it... all these are affecting peace in the rural life. This film covers most of the factors in a simple fashion, It was not that easy for everyone to understand the end part as it contained two way meaning, literal and metaphor. One is a report card for the actuality and the other one is a cinematic conclusion. Overall, it tackles on the matured contents and children are the part of it, especially the last quarter all about them. And finally, everyone won't desire for a movie like this, but IMO certainly worth spending time for it.

8/10