Il capitale umano

Greetings again from the darkness. The financial crisis-manslaughter-class warfare-thriller from novelist Stephen Amidon shifts from Connecticut (in the book) to just outside of Milan for director Paolo Verzi's look at class and character. A term used by insurance companies to calculate the value of a human life in settlement cases, "human capital" carries even more meaning in this twisted tale of greed and broken dreams.

After an opening sequence that shows an off-duty waiter getting knocked from his bicycle by a swerving SUV in the dark of night, the story is divided into chapters that provide the various perspectives of different characters affected by this hit-and-run. Dino (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is a middle-class real estate business owner whose girlfriend (the too rarely seen Valeria Golino) is pregnant with twins, and his daughter Serena (Matilde Gioli) is dating a private school classmate Massimiliano (Guglielmo Pinelli) who comes from the upper crest Bernaschi family that is living the dream thanks to the dad's (Fabrizio Gifuni) hedge-fund success.

It's easy to see how the lives of these two families become intertwined, and how a few other characters are also affected, but the real joy here is in getting to know each through their own actions. Dino desperately wants a taste of the finer things in life, and risks everything by fraudulently obtaining a bank loan in order to buy into Bernaschi's hedge fund. His wife Roberta is a trusting and pure-hearted woman who accepts her place in society and warmly looks forward to being a new mom. Their daughter Serena proves to be the best judge of character and soon enough boots the spoiled kid Massimiliano to the curb, while connecting with the artistic and misunderstood Luca (Giovanni Anzaldo), though even Serena's moral compass shows its cracks.

Bernaschi is a smooth operator and the perfect face for a hedge fund so dependent on the financial collapse of its own country. His wife Carla (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) is a lost soul … enjoying the perks of a wealthy lifestyle, but still holding on to her artistic dreams of youth. Life as a trophy wife is evidently not so fulfilling for those with their own aspirations. Their son Massimiliano, as you might imagine, is unable to live up to the expectations of his father, and frequently handles his perceived lack of parental attention by over-boozing at every opportunity.

This film was Italy's submission to the Academy in the Best Foreign Language category, but unfortunately did not make the final cut. It is rich in texture and remarkable in its ability to convey depth in so many characters. The basic story has some similarities to the film 21 Grams, in that we witness the many ways in which people handle crisis. In this case, the mystery of the initial sequence is left unsolved until near the end, but there are so many personal "fork in the road" moments, that solving the case of the cyclist death somehow doesn't monopolize our thoughts.

Excellent acting throughout allows us to connect with each of the key characters, and especially worth noting are Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Matilde Gioli. Ms. Gioli is a newcomer with a bright future. She brings believability and strength to a teenager role that would more typically be over-the-top or one-dimensional in the hands of a lesser actress. Even more impressive is the performance from Ms. Bruni Tedeschi who perfectly captures the heartbreak of a woman living a life others can only dream about, while her own dreams are but shadows from the past.

With source material from a U.S. novelist, and subject matter involving the 1% and crisis of conscience, it's not difficult to imagine an American remake, but this version is highly recommended for those who enjoy a multi-faceted dramatic thriller.

Lately I have been watching lots of movies from the book adaptation and here it comes another one. This time an English language novel transformed into an Italian movie. But what I heard is that a few changes were made to bring the Italian flavor. Well, what could I say more, if you know the director you will say he's the right person to make it happen and he did excellently. Recruited the best cast and extracted best out of them.

The story of the two families narrated in the different streams when a cyclist got hit by a car on the Christmas eve. So the question has been asked, how did it happen? And who did it? The characters from two families begin to expose their role on that accident night revealing who did what. Dino, a realtor sees an opportunity to get into a big earning league so he decides to invest a large amount on it. Followed by the recession he has to face the reality of business that puts his life on a stake. Carla, the wife of a multimillionaire gives a financial support for the struggling company. Later she has to let it go when her husband's business begins to fall apart. Serena, the daughter of Dino and Massimiliano, son of Carla are the close friends. Their story follows where one of them finds their true love and another one get into sadness for some reason. When all these three episodes concludes the final chapter begins to unveil the truth with a twist.

''I know it does not look much like you, I tend to make things uglier.''

The story was told in layers which were divided into the four chapters. The story that happened between the particular timeline was repeated again and again with another character's perspective and with different camera angles till truth reveals in the final chapter. As it's still developing the opening was confusing which was the first chapter. Without holding-up in development, it straight goes with the main intention of the theme. If you pass that then the following segments interest you to make you guess the possibilities the suspense it hold. Kind of impossible to predict because of the introduction of the related characters to the particular incident consumed by the three quarters of the film. Which mean twist comes at the latter part which was really a good one. Each character that comes in the different episodes were incredible. Like, for a moment it was unhooked from the rest and centralizes that specific story stream, but the common event holds the story all together. I liked all the main characters, but the character Serena steals the final show. The role who played it was a new face and I kind see a great career ahead of her. (God, she's kind of attractive, hope its not me the only one to say that.) This was one of the recent best neo-noir. If somebody asks, I definitely recommend it.

After working at a private school party in a small town in Italy on the Christmas Eve, the waiter Fabrizio (Gianluca Di Lauro) is riding his bicycle home. Out of the blue, the driver of a SUV hit-and-run the waiter and leaves him seriously injured on the road. The ambitious real estate agent Dino Ossola (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) drives his daughter Serena (Matilde Gioli) to the manor of her boyfriend Massimiliano Bernaschi (Guglielmo Pinelli). He snoops around and befriends his wealthy father Giovanni Bernaschi (Fabrizio Gifuni) expecting to get along with him and invest in his investment fund. Dino lies and hires a secured loan of 700 thousand Euros from Giampi (Gigio Alberti) to invest in Bernaschi's speculative fund expecting to have 40% a year in return, and disregards the risks involved. His guarantee is Sarana's house, where he lives with his second wife, the psychologist Roberta (Valeria Golino) that is pregnant, and Serena. Meanwhile, Giovanni's wife Carla Bernaschi (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) sees an old theater that will be demolished and convinces her husband to buy the building and restore the theater. She invites her former theater Professor Donato Russomanno (Luigi Lo Cascio), who has a crush on her, to be the art director and gets closer to him. Things go awry when Bernaschi's fund flops and loses 90% of its value and the cyclist dies at the hospital. The police inspector finds that Massimiliano's SUV was responsible for the hit-and-run. But who was driving the car? The alcoholic Massimiliano? His girlfriend Serena? Or someone else?

"Il capitale umano" (2013) is a great film by Paolo Virzì with the mystery of who hit-and-run the waiter Fabrizio? The screenplay, divided in four chapters (Dino, Carla, Serena and Human Capital is very well written, with a perfect and concise development. The performances of unknown actors and actresses (Valeria Golino is the exception) are outstanding. The scum Dino Ossola is the representation of the worst in the mankind, a garbage as human being. The mystery of who killed Fabrizio is disclosed in the end. The ironic value of a human life closes this film with golden key. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Capital Humana" ("Human Capital")

Although not always for people involved or those who actually want to make a lot of it. Then there are others who just don't care about it (having a lot of it might add to that secure feeling of course). This movie is about getting rich, about getting into families, about greed and about human behavior in general.

In the beginning I thought this was going to be simple. And in a way I guess it is simple. But the way the movie works (the structure, the backtracking, the seeing things from a different perspective and so on) could and might suggest otherwise. You might feel a bit annoyed seeing a couple of things "twice", but in the grand scheme of it all, it will make sense in the end ... although some decisions are so bad, you do wonder why they were taken in the first place ... still nicely told.

I watched both of the movies in their original languages... I mean this one and the American version shot in 2019... both of them are from the same book, so obviously they are very similar, not exactly the same as many people told, but you can understand that only if you're really able to understand both of the languages... the subtitles don't count... I think that those who don't understand the language, well, they shouldn't judge this movie, even using the subtitles.... the review wouldn't make any sense. I appreciated more the American version than this one... IMHO is much better, but you have to decide for yourself. My advice for those who watched this version... if you don't understand perfectly Italian, don't write any review, a low score wouldn't be fair, this movie doesn't deserve a low score. The right score should start from 7, less of that would mean that you didn't understand enough.