As was often the case, this year’s Venice competition started off strong but lost some steam as it crossed the halfway mark. These last couple of days, there hasn’t been that much to write home about. Thankfully, Italian director Pietro Marcello turned that around today with his luminous, poetic Jack London-adaptation MARTIN EDEN, a film I suspect will not leave the Lido unawarded this weekend.
The setting of the 1909 original novel is transplanted here to Italy of an unspecified era. The titular Martin (Luca Marinelli) is an undereducated young man who tries to make ends meet working as a sailor and taking on odd jobs. Martin likes to read and harbors the fantasy of becoming a writer one day, although he struggles to even piece grammatically correct sentences together using his limited vocabulary. By chance the seaman/dreamer saves the heir of the affluent Orsini family from trouble and gets to know beautiful, cultivated Elena (Jessica Cressy). Thus begins a love affair where the penniless grade school dropout tries to prove his worth by becoming a man of letters.
The plot is admittedly not breaking any ground and biographical narratives tend to further restrict creative potential, but there’s something about Marcello’s direction that feels so fresh and liberating you find yourself instantly drawn to the lives portrayed on screen. Like music, his storytelling is very rhythmic and follows an organic emotional curve. The scenes aren’t so much clear-cut building blocks as instinctual preludes to/echoes of each other. Martin could be one place this second and somewhere else the next, while seemingly random cutaways to stock footage from different eras and backgrounds further disrupt the linearity of things. But instead of being confusing, the film sweeps you off your feet with a breezy, terribly romantic groove that’s hard to describe.
Part of it has to do with the literary nature of the project. For Martin, books represent freedom, they offer a temporary refuge from his menial daily grind. And the film makes sure to capture that sense of abandon and possibility communicated by words. It takes you inside the creative mindset as the protagonist processes all that inspires him and translates them into language. In this regard, Marcello’s nonliteral, experiential approach truly works wonders.
The exquisite cinematography by Alessandro Abate and Francesco Di Giacomo must also be singled out. Not only did the two DP’s find a dreamily, timelessly gorgeous look for the film where every frame grips you like a work of classical art, the way their camera tilts, swerves and glides with wild unpredictability contributes substantially to the overall hypnotic effect. Same goes for the score created by Marco Messina and Sacha Ricci, an eclectic mix of orchestral and contemporary pieces that often defies expectations but never fails to intrigue. In a particularly memorable scene where a broke but happily enamored Martin walks down the street, his heart full of hope for a future that’s about to begin, the golden imagery and the soulful tune that accompanies it are so vividly, sizzlingly alive you just want to watch it, feel it, be in it forever.
Marinelli is terrific as the idealistic aspiring author. He commands the screen with effortless charm and evokes the innocence, frustrations, and ultimately pride of what could have been an ironed-out literary hero. The last half-hour of the film takes a more expressly political turn, which compromised its allure for me somewhat, but Marinelli still invokes enough mystery with his portrayal of a fiercely human character to carry the show brilliantly over the finish line. Yet another hot candidate for the best actor award of the festival.
Before I have to rush out to another screening, here’s a quick run-down of things I liked about some of the other films I saw. Timothée Chalamet is great in Netflix’s THE KING. His youthful looks and slim frame contrast starkly with the gravitas of his character – King Henry V of England. That contrast serves the narrative wonderfully and Chalamet brings a level of consistent, unbroken intensity to his performance that immediately demands your attention. Meryl Streep is also marvelous (surprise) in THE LAUNDROMAT, Steven Soderbergh’s anthological dark comedy about the Panama Papers. Funny, warm, dignified, she gives the playful, jazzily directed film its humanity and emotional weight. As for NO. 7 CHERRY LANE, a two-hour animated feature from Hong Kong about a mother-daughter love triangle set in the 60s, it is just so astoundingly weird and jaw-droppingly kinky that I count myself lucky to have borne witness to its psychotic grandeur.
OK I’ve just read the first few reviews (THR, Variety, The Wrap) for THE KING straight from Venice and they do sound like proper raves for both the film and its cast. If these kind of reviews keep coming, Chalamet could be easily back in the lead race this year and Edgerton could at last get his first nod in supporting, too.
Those are probsbly the 3 most raving reviews to be fair – there are some more negative ones… Still it’s sounding pretty good – even the negative ones are raving about Chalamet so that could definitely be a thing. They’ve been pretty positive about the screenplay too so maybe it’s a possibility?
Really ? Those were literally the only three I found when I was looking a few hours ago.
The indiewire review is not great but it’s very positive about Chalamet. Vanity Fair very positive about Chalamet kinda lukewarm on the film. Telegraph is kinda negative. To name a few
The reviews are mostly positive, but there is a wide range of opinion. The Hollywood Reporter review actually says the film has “unerring judgment”, which is a perfect score, but it doesn’t match what some other critics are saying. Well, I will just have to watch it and make up my own mind!
The Telegraph critic admits he is a Shakespeare purist. All the changes will undoubtedly make purists howl with dismay. I am normally a Shakespeare purist too, so when I watch it, I know I shall have to strenuously fight the urge to exclaim: “They changed that!”
A few have said the first hour is a trudge. I invite those people to watch the original Henry IV plays, e.g. in The Hollow Crown, the BBC’s faithful adaptation of the Henriad which changes nothing from Shakespeare. The two Henry IV plays contain moments of genius, but frankly also a heap of filler. The tedious court politics make them barely watchable, so there is no way the film could be draggier than the original plays. Sorry, Shakespeare nuts, but it’s true!
Maybe it’s my imagination, but it seems Zhuo-Ning Su above also raved about Chalamet, but not about the film. Perhaps there just wasn’t enough time.
In a weak year for lead actors, such as the last two years, I could see him sneaking into the fifth slot. This year is strong for lead actors, so I am not predicting him to get in there. A supporting actor nod for Little Women is possible, according to Sasha.
Edit: Maybe I spoke too soon. More strong reviews are coming in, the latest being from Time Out and The Playlist and Stephanie Zacharek of Time.
Yeah of course – I wasn’t trying to say that the reactions were overall negative just that the 3 reviews he had read weren’t fully representative of the range of opinions. But yeah I’ll also wait until I see it to make up my mind
Thanks for the strong recommendation for Martin Eden. I hope to catch it when it is available.