Italy in the last months of the second world war. An alpine community, isolated from the war and everything else, save for the warplanes that sometimes fly overhead. Two deserters, one from the village and another a tender Sicilian, seek refuge. A local girl, one of the schoolmaster's many children, falls for the Sicilian and marries him. The war ends and the Sicilian heads back to visit his family. Will he return or not?
The narrative is spun around this slender thread, but Delpero's deeper interest is in detailing the growing pains of the sisters in this remote world. The filmmaking displays a meticulous artistry. The rendition of this remote world is perfectly realised and the nuances of the sisters' coming of age stories, which might have been tainted by melodrama, are perfectly captured. This is immersive filmmaking: we walk out of our world and into that of the film. Our time stops and the time of the film takes over.
No comments:
Post a Comment