From the Italian phenomenon of Paolo Genovese in 2016 “Perfect perfect”, the original variety review warned that “the remakes will be crawling”, and of course, Guinness made it official last fall: the drama connects – on a dinner where a group of friends agrees to read their private text messages aloud (although, we have so far been spared English version).
The success of this model seems to have gone directly to the head of Genovese, while the scriptwriter -director deals with his latest feature film, “Madly”, more like an appropriate film: romantic comedy at high concept – which personifies contradictory thoughts than the experience of a man and cultures. If and when this happens, however, we hope that each new filmmaker will make progress to improve it in the story.
As it stands, “madly” does not feel original to start. The configuration borrows from the American sitcom from the early 90s “Herman’s Head” (or “inside out”) of Pixar) in that it alternates between the real world, where Piero (Edoardo Leo) meets Lara (Pilar Fogliati) from his apartment for a meal and more, and the colorful choir that the choir is quarrel on their respective Noggins.
Unfortunately, these various emotions / impulses are not clearly identified or defined in the script, which Genovese co-written with four others (including three women). “Madly” slightly promotes the point of view of Piero, but does a decent work to give to the interior monologue of Lara to the equality of time, insofar as a relatively simple first date – he arrives in her apartment, they are temporarily worthy of each other on drinks, the flirting takes place, followed by conflict, before all their attractions and inseruities leave everyone.
The Piero peanut gallery is made up of hot blood eros (Claudio Santamaria), Romeo with a romantic spirit (Maurizio Lastrico), the rational but reluctant professor (Marco Giallini) and a Wild-Card called Valium (Rocco Papaleo), which is the risk of taking place. Meanwhile, Lara’s feelings are represented by Trilli (Emanuela Fanelli), Giulietta (Vittoria Puccini), Alfa (Claudia Pandolfi) and Schegia (Maria Ciara Giannetta), which apparently correspond to the same mixture of Lux Quattro occupy what looks like a Spartan industrial storage room.
Given the claustrophobic spaces that their respective psyche occupied, it is strange that Genovese has chosen to make the couple’s meeting in Lara’s apartment. (Visually, it would have been better to make them work and speak in town, as Jesse and Céline do in the “before” trilogy, instead of going from kitchen to sofa in bedroom.) The film opens in the spirit of Piero, where we need a moment to realize chivalrous or chauvin?
Through the city, Lara is also preventively guessed at night. Was it the right blow to invite this quasi-stangerous for dinner? Will he have the bad idea? What is the right level of lighting to create the atmosphere? This last material wins the first big laugh in a film full of wide in SitCom style, because we see it adjust the lights from Piero’s point of view, to whom it seems that it is a welder that could work or a disco party is in full swing.
It still sounds the bell, and once inside, they make a slightly clumsy conversation (“Are we going to lie down at the table?” Asks Lara, allowing a Freudian shift to spice things), while their interior dialogues work over the hours (“Get the knife of Lasagne, the Castrez and it”, suggests Trilli). The problem with the approach of Genovese is that each small choice triggers a kind of mental skirmish, so that Piero and Lara appear as even more neurotic than your typical Woody Allen character.
What “madly” is missing – according to the norms of American romantic comedy, at least – it is intellectual chemistry that makes us fall in love with these characters while they are likely to fall in love with each other. Although their minds can run, these two prove to be too superficial to maintain a large part of a conversation, and because the film allows us to participate in their insecurity, very little of what they say feels sincere. Instead, Piero and Lara are cautiously trying to seduce each other, while protecting themselves from what could be a crazy person.
When it inevitably comes, the sex scene has fun (good taste between the couple, while their acclaimous sections are unleashed). But in the morning after is the clincher, revealing that everything else was prelude to the very important question of how to get out of their own heads and grasp the potential of a real human connection. Genovese takes care of this quite intelligently, taking advantage of these unpleasant anthropomorphic emotions. “Made” can be clumsy and too specific to international export, but it can always be corrected when someone is reducing it for your market.
