Il capitale umano

"Human Capital" (2013 release from Italy; 110 min.) brings the story of two families, whose fates are so different yet intertwined. As the movie opens, we see a staff person bike home late at night after having worked at a big event of some sort. We also see a speeding SUV and the SUV appears to accidentally hit the biker, but doesn't stop. Whoa! Who was that? What just happened? After the opening credits, we are told we are "Six Months Earlier - Chapter 1 - Dino" and we get to know a number of characters: there is Dino, the real estate guy whose daughter Serena is dating Massimiliano, the son of a hedge-fund manager. Dino convinces the latter to let him buy in, but soon regrets doing so when the market tanks. To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: first, this is the big screen version of American author Stephen Amidon's acclaimed 2005 novel of the same name. How often do you see a big screen adaptation of an American novel that is made abroad, rather than in the US? Director Paolo Virzi transposes the story from Connecticut to Northern Italy very nicely, and along the way adds other elements to make this his own story. Second, the movie works on different levels: there is the immediate question as to what exactly happened at that hit-and-run late night accident (?). Then there is the social commentary about today's society and the influence of money on people (keep in mind: this is Italy, where they have been going through a Great Recession for YEARS now). The movie is split into 4 chapters, and we rehash more or less the same events from different people's perspectives (Dino, Carla, Serena). It's a technique that has been used before, but when executed well, as in this movie, it elevates the movie, as you discover new details in each new perspective of the same events. Last but not least, the movie features a great ensemble cast (there are about 7 or 8 key characters to keep track of). Bottom line: this is a movie that caught my attention from start to finish.

This movie is the May, 2015 release of Film Movement's on-going DVD Of the Month club. No idea why a 2013 release only now gets exposed to US audiences but better late than never I suppose. As always, the Film Movement DVD comes with a number of bonus materials, including an okay "making of", but far better is the bonus shortie. This time we get "Job Interview", an excellent 9 min. shortie from Germany about a woman (Lisa) being interviewed by another woman for a job. Just watch! Meanwhile, "Human Capital" is a worthwhile addition to Film Movement's ever-growing library of foreign and indie movies. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

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.

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")

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.

I have always been struck by the sentence in F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY (1925) used to describe Tom and Daisy Buchanan as "destructive" in the sense that they have a lot of money, but that renders then totally indifferent to human suffering, especially that of the eponymous hero.

Through the ingenious of three interlinked stories, each depicting the same incident, Paolo Virzi's film achieved a similar effect. A man is knocked off his bicycle on Christmas Eve by someone driving an SUV; the action leading up to and including that incident over the previous six months is narrated from Dino Ossola's (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) perspective, from that of his daughter Serena (Matilde Gioli) and that of their rich acquaintance's wife Carla (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi). The story is relatively straightforward, involving Carla's husband Giovanni (Fabrizio Gifuni), her son Massimiliano (Guglielmo Pinelli), and a young man wrongfully accused of drug possession who has received psychiatric counseling (Gigio Alberti).

What we learn from the narrative is how Giovanni lives an affluent existence that renders him totally insensible to the sufferings of others. He believes that money can buy anything, even justice. We see him mostly in interior sequences, in a rich-looking house surrounded by guests. Carla believes there is more to life than simply money, but apparently cannot countermand her husband's will. Money produces servility. Massimiliano has the same indifference to others as his father; so long as he has the chance to sleep in his own bed and enjoy driving his new "beast" - the SUV involved in the accident - then his existence is fulfilled.

Morally speaking. Dino's existence is not much better, as he invests €700,000 in one of Giovanni's schemes and loses virtually nine- tenths of his capital. In revenge he tries to blackmail Carla for €900,000 plus a kiss; the fact that this scene takes place in a theater underlines the theme of the film, that these people are merely performing in life, rather than trying to understand its vicissitudes.

In plot-terms, HUMAN CAPITAL can be approached as a murder-mystery, as we are led down various blind alleys until we discover who actually killed the cyclist. In thematic terms, however, the film is far more preoccupied with showing the depths to which people can sink in their attempts to avoid confronting the truth about their existences and live instead in their financial bubbles, both mental as well as tangible.