Quo Vadis, Baby?

Quo Vadis (Where are we going), Baby, is a pretty good contemporary noir story.

Angela Baraldi does a great job as Giorgia, the central character whose sister committed suicide many years ago. The arrival of a box full of video tapes initiates opening of old memories and old wounds. Ada is not seen as suicidal, but the holes in the story start to fill in nicely, with surprises constantly causing one to re-evaluate the "who done it" question.

Despite plot development being primary we get nicely tuned views of Giorgia, her sister Ada, their father Il Capitano and other players.

The cinematography is a bit dull, but not distracting. Even with subtitles I thought the dialog was interesting and carried forward the plot and character development.

The ending is very Indie, with surprises to be had and with some thinking to be done. Definitely worth a watch.

Just yesterday I saw "Io non ho paura", from this Italian director (Salvatores), and I wrote a commentary saying that it was one of the best movies I've ever seen.

That's why today I picked up another movie from the same director, "Quo Vadis Baby", but this time I'm afraid I must say this one is one of the worse movies I've ever saw.

Why this dichotomy from one and the same man? Making movies is a very difficult task. Nobody makes a movie thinking that he/she is making a bad movie of course. One thinks that the new movie will be the best ever.

But in the way something goes awry --nobody knows exactly what-- and the picture is ruined. Like making a soufflé. Hit or miss. Well, more was lost (from the Spanish point of view, of course) with the Cuban war --Spain versus USA back in the 19th century--, but in this particular case, I lost a couple of precious hours that will never recoup again.

All the ingredients were there, good actors, good camera work, good everything --good direction!!-- but the patient was dead.

But I wont give up! no siree..., they have another three titles by this director at the Dante Alighieri Mediateca here in Buenos Aires, and I will see them all, no matter what.

Maybe one of the other titles is as good as "Io non ho paura" and that will be worth the effort.

See this movie anyhow, it induces a very pleasant dozing effect.

I would say that "Quo Vadis Baby?" is a good movie for different reasons. First of all the setting: Bologna, an Italian medieval city that, with its tiny streets and arches, is the right city where to set a Noir movie. Plus the photography is good, delivering the idea of a gloomy atmosphere both in the outdoor scenes and in the indoor ones. A change in the light of the photography can be noted when the main character, Giulia goes to Rome to investigate about her Sister's death, giving the idea of a city that could give her some straight answers to her doubts. The characters are well developed and credible and the plot is nicely built since it gives little by little hints to the viewer of the future development and about the possible culprit. However I would have expected a more unexpected ending and this is the main flaw of this movie.

A noir of the soul so to say. That's how I would define Salvatores' latest movie. I loved the character of Giorgia, that non-politically correct 40 years old lady who smokes, drinks, is single and tries to live through her past and fears. She's a private investigator and her hardest task is to investigate into the suicide of her sister Ada, 16 years earlier. Salvatores enters the heart of both women and let us see their dreams, fears and lies around the death of one of them. Angela Baraldi (Giorgia) is particularly brilliant and astonishing. You can't take your eyes off of her. The atmosphere is very intense and that is emphasized by the excellent soundtrack of the movie. Very poignant.

The movie is OK, with some good parts and a few brilliant ideas. To me, Salvatores movies are sometimes great, often OK and a few times bad. The main characteristic of this one is that it is like a manual of all the common errors, horrors and annoying things of recent Italian movies. The story starts quite well and the characters seem interesting, but it turns banal and predictable with a lot of unbelievable and uber fake situations. The movie is set in Bologna and NONE of the characters has the tiniest accent from Bologna (BTW - one of the greatest accent in Italy) -the two sisters have definite different accents, one from Rome and one from Milan As usual the actors speak in actor's school Italian (why Italian directors cant put real everyday Italian dialogue in movies??) Location are great for cinematic purposes - Bologna city center with its covered passages and Old Rome with the river and the old cobbled streets, but no middle aged stripper, or aspiring actress, or shabby private detective could afford that (why Italian directors can't show us real contemporary Italy??) And what about the brand new, sparkling clean café' kiosk right in the middle of an abandoned factory ?? And the far too many irrelevant references to all those old movies ?? And the director's trademark marijuana smoking - so annoying

I think Salvatores should decide whether he wants to do nice, joyful movies like Mediterraneo or more real and tough movies about real and tough contemporary Italy like Io non ho paura, because every time he tries something in the middle results are disappointing