Mare nero

Confusing and weird. The movie begins normally but worsens increasingly, until having some disgusting 'Fifty shades of grey' inspirations.

This film is clearly made by someone who has watched 'Eyes Wide Shut' far too many times, but hasn't really understood it. The narrative makes almost no sense, and it actually often feels as if there was no attempt to include a narrative in the film at all. The only enjoyment to be had in watching this film is the satisfaction of the male gaze in eyeing some really beautiful women. Otherwise, avoid.

Mare Nero (Black Sea) is Roberta Torre's fourth feature, and her first thriller. Given the acclaim her previous works had received, one might be entitled to expecting something good and interesting. Sadly, the movie isn't particularly accomplished.

It begins well, though: a corpse is found in the sea (the location is Naples) and the deceased young woman turns out to have been leading a quite peculiar life during the night. As a police inspector (Luigi Lo Cascio) looks into the case, he gets more and more obsessed with the victim's habits, and this obsession starts causing problems in his relationship with a French woman (Anna Mouglalis).

The rest of the story is very predictable, as Torre panders to genre conventions without adding anything new. In fact, from a certain point on, she kind of suspends the narrative threads, offering instead a montage of Lynch and Kubrick references.

Technically speaking, I liked the film: the cinematography and music are impressive. As for the acting, Lo Cascio could have made his ambiguous cop more appealing, while Mouglalis'supporting turn is just as amusingly perverse as the role demands.

Overall, however, Mare Nero disappoints because it gets overly confusing in its second half, with no precise idea of where it wants to go. This approach could have worked with the right director. Unfortunately, that isn't Roberta Torre. She should stick to musicals or dramas, and leave these films to those who know how to handle them.

6,5/10

The girlfriend (Anna Mouglalis) of Detective Luca Mocci (Luigi Lo Cascio) moves from the house her friend Charlotte to live with him. When the corpse of the upper-class escort and student Valentina Martini (Luigi Lo Cascio) is found in an apartment tied and beaten after a kinky sex, Detective Mocci becomes obsessed with his investigation in the underworld of sex in his city, arising dark desires and affecting his relationship with his girlfriend.

"Mare Nero" is a stylish, classy and sensual thriller, but unfortunately the characters and situations are not well developed in the confused screenplay, where even the name of the detective's girlfriend is not disclosed. The ambiguity and weird personality of Mocci and the erotic games of his girlfriend are really not well developed. The good points are the stunning cinematography and soundtrack and the beauty of the actresses. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Mar Sombrio" ("Dark Sea")

This stylish tour de force is a beauty to watch. I must admit that I don't, for one second, believe that Italian police stations are decked out in minimalist/modernist furniture and Italian detectives get around like Paul Smith models, but there is definitely something appealing in suspending disbelief to look at beautiful things.

David Lynch's Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks appear to have been a huge influence for this. The film reads like a beautiful coffee table book on modernist furniture/photography. The leads are gorgeous and the lighting and cinematography sublime. There is also a huge amount of sexual expression, again done in a beautifully stylish manner that allows us to be the voyeur without feeling like we are watching cheap porn or tacky Hollywood T & A.

Unfortunately, the storyline is confused. I get the distinct feeling that this film would've made sense had the editing been less brutal (but I could be totally wrong and perhaps the script is non-sensical). By the end I was wondering what the hell was going on (although I didn't care that much because it looked so great). Perhaps something was lost in translation? The story gets to the point where the viewer thinks they have 'got it', then it ends up on a tangent. Perhaps this is deliberate and we are asked to fill in the gaps ourselves, which is another Lynchian throw back ...

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