A double quality Italian closure. To seal the moment of grace of the tricolor cinema that appeared at the 78th Festival, at least in most of the titles. In the virtuous circle of value, therefore, they are respectively inserted The hidden child from Roberto went – chosen to close the official selection out of competition e Lovely Boy from Francesco Lettieri, out-of-competition epilogue of the 18th edition of the Giornate degli Autori.
Adaptation by Andò of his own novel of the same name, The hidden child is the intimate story of a man with an invisible life, the music professor and former pianist Gabriele Santoro, who suddenly finds himself facing an adventure greater than himself, exposing his frailties but also unpredictable resources. What goes to shake his existence enclosed in an apartment in the suggestive cavoni of Naples is a child who hides in his house to escape something that is not right to reveal here. Together they will seek a balance capable of providing both, especially Gabriele, with new meaning and identity to their respective existences. Small film but of great dignity, The hidden child proposes one of the most intense and exciting interpretations of Silvio Orlando in the role of Santoro: a lonely man, sensitive and of profound culture, he is inadequate to the dysfunctions of a criminal and overbearing Naples, especially in the neighborhood he chooses to live in. His mental reference is Ulisse, the most modern hero among the ancients, whose homeland Ithaca becomes a symptom and metaphor of his present and future life: “Don’t rush your journey. You must always have Ithaca in mind ”.
Different in narrative and stylistic approach but very close to the text of Andò due to the fragility of its protagonist, Lovely Boy is the pleasant second long test of Francesco Lettieri, author perhaps better known to the universe of video clips than to the strictly cinematic one. His Nic – played by the always extraordinary Andrea Carpenzano – is a talented and successful Roman trapper, but this does not prevent him from slipping into drug addiction, with the effect of falling into hell and the need for rehab. The film is basically the willful and merciless parable of Nic, aka Lovely Boy, reticent but forced into a rehabilitation community in the Dolomites. If it is not true it is not an original subject, Lettieri’s tone, style and sensitivity transform this classic existential parable into an effective, realistic and profound work, not devoid of symbolic elements well transmitted by the “double personality” to which drug addiction forces those who become its victim. We will see it soon on October 4th on Sky Cinema.
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