No lie – ‘Pinocchio’ an enchanting winner
From the great Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone (“Gomorra,” “Tale of Tales,” “Dogman”) comes a gorgeously gritty, award-winning, live-action version of “Pinocchio” that is both enchanting and a perfect match for these troubled times. Featuring a delightful Academy Award winner Roberto Benigni, who directed and starred in his own 2002 version of this tale, as the lonely woodworker Geppetto and a wonderful, 9-year-old Federico Ielappi as Pinocchio, the film might be described as an example of fairy-tale neo-realism. It is both a tribute to Italy’s post-WWII dramas about the plight of its children and a picaresque portrait of a wooden boy on the rocky road to human fulfillment.
Using real locations for the most part in Italy’s rocky Apulia region, as well as Tuscany, beautifully shot by Nikolai Bruel, Garrone gets to the heart and soul of Carlo Gollodi’s 1883 tale, most famously adapted by Walt Disney, whose 1940 animated film has scared the stuffing out of several generations of children. Geppetto can be seen at first trying to con his way into work at the local eatery and instead only accepting a freebie bowl of soup. In these scenes Benigni expertly establishes the film’s semi-comic, semi-tragic, Chaplinesque tone. Inspired by a magical, visiting puppet show headed by the frightening Mangiafuoco (Gigi Proietti), Geppetto carves the puppet of a little boy, who comes alive under his chisel, making the aging bachelor Geppetto a proud, first-time father.
The film is a complete marvel and triumph of prosthetic make-up design. Instead of CGI, Garrone and Donatello Award-winning make-up artists Mark Coulier (“Suspiria”) and Dalia Colli (“Dogman”) have created the most remarkable cast of fairy-tale characters. Pinocchio does indeed look like he is made out of wood (he creaks and clacks). His so-called friends Fox (co-writer Massimo Ceccherini) and Cat (Rocco Papaleo) exist on some plane between animal and human. Along with Davide Marotta, who plays the “Talking Cricket,” Mangiafuoco’s puppets (one is played by Marotta) are among the film’s most captivating creations, pintsized wooden characters played by real actors. The effect is dreamlike.
Pinocchio is a liar, a shirker and a bit dim. He disobeys Geppetto and ends up on the road, where he has a series of encounters and adventures. In disturbing scenes, Pinocchio grows long furry ears and turns into a donkey that is sold into bondage by the cruel proprietor of the Land of Toys. Marine Vacth adds an element of maternal love as the turquoise-haired fairy with the giant snail governess (Maria Pia Timo). This English-language-dubbed “Pinocchio” may not be kiddie friendly. But older fans of Collodi’s wooden boy will be find themselves spellbound by this darkly Grimm take on a beloved fairy tale.
(“Pinocchio” contains scenes of cruelty and physical violence.)