HAPPY AS LAZZARO
I am the resurrection…
Italian magic neo-realism sure to make you smile.
For the opening stretch of Alice Rohrwacher’s third feature, the earth under your feet seems fairly solid. With grit and texture, the Italian writer-director zeroes in on the rituals and rhythms of a rustic tobacco-farming village, focusing mostly on put-upon innocent Lazzaro (newcomer Adriano Tardiolo). But if the melds of fable, naturalism and surrealism in her previous films (Corpo Celeste, The Wonders) indicated anything, it was to stay sharp with Rohrwacher. And so it proves here, as a startling mid-film twist resets her terms of engagement.
Rohrwacher maps out neo-realist terrain initially, using DoP Hélène Louvart’s 16mm images and a (partly) non-professional cast to render rural life with tactile authenticity. But subtle signals keep us alert. The timeframe is elusive: it could be the ’30s, until posh teen Tancredi (Luca Chikovani) arrives with a Walkman. And what’s with the tales of a mythical wolf?
Suddenly, a temporal/geographical shift relocates the villagers to a grim
city silo, where most (but not all…) are 20 years older. From here, Rohrwacher folds folk fabulism into a stinging class critique with intuitive fluency.
While her political points can seem blunt, she often leavens the punch with beguiling flutters of fancy. Equally crucially, she draws magnetic work from Tardiolo, whose sweet reserve – Edward Scissorhands without the sharp edges - as a kind of man who fell to Earth acts in counterpoint to the injustices he encounters. To reveal more would be too spoilery, too reductive, but this much can be said: in Rohrwacher’s hands, engaged, immersive and marvellously confounding world cinema lives on. Kevin Harley
THE VErDICT
Magic neo-realism? Politico-fabulism? However you cut it, Rohrwacher’s dreamy parable resists easy summary for a deeper, more alive engagement.