Icarus Films will be teaming up with Distrib Films
for the domestic DVD debut of Italian filmmaker Valerio Mieli’s Venice Film
Festival People’s Choice Award-winner (plus others), Ricordi?, on
Apr. 14.
Imagine a graph, the type that genealogists prepare
to show families. In this box is such
and such, the daughter or son of this couple.
In that box is this person and in another that person. They are connected, but the only ones you
remember are the people in the boxes that you know; have known … the others are
just names; abstracts.
Mieli plays with time and memories in the romance of
Lui (Luca Marinelli — Il Padre d'Italia, Don’t be Bad,
Martin Eden, etc.) and Lei (Linda Caridi — Mamma +
Mamma, Nome di Donna) — we never actually hear their
names spoken — a seemingly perfectly matched couple. We skip about in time, sometimes with tricks
of the camera (the cinematography of Daria D'Antonio is every bit a part of the
story as the storyline itself), where the eye expects to see one thing only to
be toyed with by changing memories.
They meet, they fall in love … moments are relived
and subtly change, depending on the mood; the wishful thoughts of a moment
shared in time and space can be remembered in different ways as time passes. We experience this with Lui and Lei … over
time.
Indeed, Mieli’s Ricordi? is a
beautiful, lyrical love story in once since, but it is also a discussion of
life and memories and how the recall of those moments can seemingly change
based on how one feels. Relationships
are not just one thing, but they change … the interaction between these two
lovers, by its very nature, sets in motion those changes in perception and
reality. Mieli makes a point of that.
Ricordi? is a
love story, an enjoyable love story, but told in such a way as to engage the
viewer in a unique and, in the end, a very satisfying way. The film is presented in Italian with
English subtitles.
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