A gushy comic crowdpleaser that’s Produced in Italia, and can likely live there TWITTER
Author-director Alessandro Genovesi’s latest comedy opened up this year’s Rome Film Festival
The title virtually states everything: Soap Opera. the most recent ensemble comedy from Italian hitmaker Alessandro Genovesi (The Worst Week of My Existence ), is really a broad and gushy crowdpleaser which should bring in significant gold coin in the local box office if this’s released in a few days, and can constitute little attract anybody living outdoors the boot. A proper option to open this season’s Rome Film Festival, whose program is catering more to homegrown tastes compared to recent editions, this very lightweight affair clumsily tackles some heavy issues suicide, being a parent, sexuality via a number of figures residing in exactly the same Milanese apartment building just like Year’s Eve comes around.
The calculated holiday setting recalls Genovesi’s last film, The Worst Christmas of My Existence. that also appeared Fabio de Luigi. although here he’s playing a lesser bumbling, Ben Stiller -style fool than the usual depressive 40-year-old named Francesco a guy without any obvious redeeming characteristics (that is possibly why he’s seen studying RobertMusil ’s The Person Without Characteristics. in a single stagy scene that can take devote a trolley vehicle).
First introduced while getting rough sex having a lady (Caterina Guzzanti ) whose name he is able to’t remember, and whom he unceremoniously stuffs under his bed if somebody rings the doorbell, Francesco isn't the type of guy one really wants to root for. This might explain why Soap Opera never really will take off when the story takes over, that involves an appreciation rectangle between Francesco, his best bud (comic star Ricky Memphis ), his pregnant ex (Cristiana Captondi ), along with a Paris-based beauty (French actress-model Elisa Sednaoui ) who turns up just like her boyfriend a basic nearby neighbor blows his brains out.
The dying transmits shockwaves with the building, whose residents likewise incorporate a sex-crazed soap star (Chiara Francini ) having a fetish for males in uniform, as well as an irascible set of twin siblings (stage comic duo Ale Franz ) who somewhat recall Oscar and Felix within the Odd Couple. except here they fight about masturbating and making herbal tea. Add a big Keystone cop (Diego Abatantuono ) who appears to be if Zero Mostel had slapped on eye liner and fallen asleep for any couple of hrs around the tanning bed, and also you’ve got the right recipe to have an overblown Italian affair oscillating between easy gags, tearjerking music along with a love story whose result's ensured in the get-go.
Genovesi attempts to contain the material along with glossy, Hollywood studio-style appearance, staging several sequences beneath a blanket of cottony snow and pulling your camera back a couple of occasions to show the whole apartment set, that was handsomely created by Tonino Zera (Romeo Juliet ). However the polished look, including deep-hued cinematography by regular Federico Masiero, cannot make amends for a script that dubiously wraps everything up when night time strikes, giving each character what they need but departing us wondering if there must be more. Or possibly less.
Production companies: Colorado Film, Wildside, together with Medusa Film
Cast: Fabio de Luigi, Cristiana Captondi, Ricky Memphis, Chiara Francini, Elisa Sednaoui, Diego Abatantuono
Director, screenwriter: Alesssandro Genovesi
Producers: Maurizio Totti, Alessandro Usai, Mario Gianani, Lorenzo Mieli
Director of photography: Federico Masiero
Production designer: Tonino Zera
Costume designer: Monica Gaetani
Editor: Claudio di Mauro
Composer: Andrea Farri
No rating, 86 minutes
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