Tag: Italy

The House That Stood (2023) Love and Other Strangers Back in the Day

The House That Stood (2023) could be called "Love and Other Strangers Back in the Day. This is one of those Independent films that fills all the boxes.
All photographs courtesy of Antonella Spirito

that fills all the boxes. A film based on a true story and a few memories. The movie managed to excite an old fossil like me almost effortlessly. It is first and foremost a film about love. It is also about war and second chances and, dare I say it, about serendipity.

There are only a handful of short Independent films that I have called perfect. The Story of 90 Coins is the most recent offering that managed to climb to the top of the list. At first glance The House That Stood should not work at all. But it does.

The subtitle curse

The House That Stood has subtitles. This alienates a huge percentage of the film’s potential audience. It is filmed, mostly, in black and white. There is no violence or nudity. No one utters a profane word. The pace is slow but this is necessary.

Of course many viewers will give this movie a miss when it finishes its current festival run. They will be missing out. There is hope however. Philistines can be converted to an extent.

Antonella Spirito

Antonella is the writer and director of this film. She has revealed that the movie is based on the true story of how her grandparents met. The House That Stood takes place toward the end of World War II. The Nazi soldiers are trying to stay one step ahead of the Allied Forces on their heels.

All photographs are courtesy of Antonella Spirito
Bianca and Camillo with chaperones.

The young hesitant and potential couple are Camillo (Matteo Accardi) and Bianca (Simona Lamorgese). These two are engaged in a “one step forward, two steps back” romance. Camillo is painfully slow in his courtship efforts. Bianca does not try to push things. This is Italy in the 1940’s and the old ways are still in practice.

Spirito has made this romance film into a tale of many colours. There are quite a lot of things going on in this film. All of these glimpses make the movie feel like: A romance, a war movie, a historical featurette and last but not least; a drama.

The Nazi presence.

Evacuation

As the Nazi soldiers arrive, commandeering houses and food, the townspeople attempt to carry on. Things take a turn, however, and the budding romance is interrupted. *Spirito chooses to leave out any subtitles for the Nazi’s running from the Allies. It is a splendid move as it adds to the confusion and slightly menacing air the three exude.*

Bianca
Camillo

Cinematography

The House That Stood is crisp and clear. Each frame exudes the best lighting possible. Bo W. Giesen is the cinematographer on this film and her work is almost faultless.

* In fact, the only thing that stood out as annoying was what appeared to be stock footage of refugees. This footage was intertwined with the main film’s black and white footage. It is a tad jarring, but it does not harm the film at all.*

Barnaby Spikings has edited this multifaceted film with a passion for complexity made simple. All the technical staff who worked on this film went above and beyond to put all the pieces together. Even if the entire project had been presented in colour it would not have dampened the feeling of authenticity. We feel we are in WWII Italy.

The cast

Trailer

The House That Stood is almost sheer perfection. I could write about this film all day. That, however, would veer into spoiler territory. Once the movie finishes its festival run you should keep an eye out for it. In fact, keep an eye out for all the folks who made this film. They have that touch. The one that makes their work worth watching.

Death Squad aka 2047: Sights of Death – What a Mess

Poster for Death Squad
Death Squad, aka 2047 Sights of Death, is a 2014 Italian film starring Danny Glover, Stephen Baldwin, Rutger Hauer, Darryl Hannah and Michael Madsen. Directed by Alessandro Capone (Hidden Love, Primetime Murder) IMDb classifies the film as action, science fiction and a thriller all mixed into one. In reality the movie is none of these genres. Death Squad is an unmitigated disaster from frame one; as Danny Glover’s character Sponge says at the end of the film, “What a mess.”

The plot may have to do with saving the world, although it is not clear just what the overall mission of Ryan Willburn (Baldwin) actually is. He is either supposed to collect a transmitter or information and the transmitter or possibly something else entirely. He crash lands in a contaminated area where he needs an anti radiation serum dose on a regular basis or he will hallucinate and die.

Once he crashes Willburn discovers a pile of bodies and a local alien girl. We know she is alien because she cannot talk, although she can write in English, and she has been painted purple…or burgundy. She also has two black dots on her forehead and chin. Tuag, played by newcomer Neva Leone, helps Ryan on his mission, whatever it is.

The villains of the piece are apparently supposed to be Rutger Hauer’s Colonel Asimov, his aide Major Anderson (Hannah) and Lobo (Madsen). With no real clear objective, it seems that they are just meant to threaten and then kill Willburn.

Editing of the film appears to have been done while under the influence of hallucinogens and the script apparently had no dialogue included as it seems that all the performers were making it up as they went along. Hauer’s lines definitely feel made up on the spot. For all intents and purposes Death Squad seems to be the first film shot with no real script or lines or direction.

Granted the movie has been given a science fiction setting, telling the audience that it is in 2047 and that world order has fallen apart and so on sorts this out. Danny Glover’s character sits scribbling in a notebook when he is not cursing and looking for data on antiquated computer monitors or talking to Willburn. At one point in the film he is writing down that “Charles Manson was right” and that viagra “was right.” Like everything else in the movie, Glover’s character is in a muddle.

The film’s action roams all over the place and has no coherency or direction. Each of the actors feel like they are in their own film. Of course Madsen plays the same face-pulling cigarette-smoking psycho version of his Kill Bill character, regardless of the role he is cast in. The actor seems to be performing in his own special movie regardless of what the script asks for.

Hannah, and Baldwin, both seem to be desperately trying to play their roles straight but with no support from anyone else in the cast. Unfortunately for Baldwin, it is hard to play it serious when having black shoe polish smeared on one’s face. Luckily for him it does magically disappear a short time later. Odd moments like this abound in Death Squad and they do not result in laughter just confusion.

In a nutshell, this film plods nonsensically along for 89 minutes with no resolution, no real story and obviously no real script. Somewhat amazingly, 2047: Sights of Death, or Death Squad, was released in Italian cinemas. For the rest of the world, the film is on Netflix and should be avoided at all costs. There is not one redeeming factor in this feature and one can only surmise that all the name actors in the film owed someone a huge favor.

0 out of 5 stars for being confusing, horrible and a waste of time.

Vincent Van Gogh and Amanda Knox Death Art and Oddity

Vincent Van Gogh and Amanda Knox Death Art and Oddity

It is not often that two news items crop up with an unusual connection but look online at today’s news stories, today as in November 5, 2014 and Vincent Van Gogh and Amanda Knox both figure heavily in the same areas, art and death, with a good measure of oddity thrown in. At first glance there is no tangible thread between the two very disparate individuals. Aside from the fact that centuries separate the two, the Dutch born painter died in 1890 and Knox, a twice convicted murderer of her British roommate in Italy, was not even born until 1987, it has emerged today, however, that there is a connection between the two.

Noah Courts Controversy Before U.S. Theater Open

Noah Courts Controversy Before U.S. Theater Open

Darren Aronofsky’s biblical epic Noah, due to open in the U.S. on March 28 has been courting controversy before it premieres theatrically within these borders. Thus far, this retelling of the world’s biggest tsunami, skirts around mentioning God altogether, referring instead to a much more PC term of The Creator. All the better to not offend those who have, perhaps, different names for “the big guy/gal.”

Amanda Knox Could Be Sent Back to Italy After Guilty Verdict

Amanda Knox Could Be Sent Back to Italy After Guilty Verdict

On Thursday, in Florence, Italy an appeals court found Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend guilty of murdering British girl Meredith Kercher in 2007; Knox, who lives in the U.S. could be sent back to Italy after the guilty verdict was reached. The 26 year-old student and her ex boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito had both been convicted of the murder, which was then overturned in 2011.