Reality is Matteo Garrone’s assistant director. It always has been, since the day, not even thirty years of age, that he won the Sacher d’Oro with short movie Silhouette, later turned into feature film Land in Between, itself an avowedly realist piece on stories on immigration and discrimination. Critics realize they’ve got something on their hands with the release of The Embalmer, a story of a sick, unconventional love shown unfiltered to the audience. The film stars actors in absolute state of grace: Ernesto Mahieux and Valerio Foglia Manzillo.
Matteo Garrone makes a big leap forward with Gomorrah, which earned worldwide recognition: at Cannes, at the Golden Globes, and at the David di Donatello award ceremony. In the following years, Garrone amazed his audiences by safely cruising into the territories of fairy tales, a world only apparently far removed from reality, but in fact, a source of most interesting inspiration. The Tale of Tales is the cinematic adaptation of a collection of stories by sixteenth-century Italian literatus Giambattista Basile. The film had a multi-million-dollar budget and an A-list cast. Garrone’s Pinocchio is the realization of the dream of a lifetime. Between the two was Dogman, applauded in Italy and abroad and inspired by a real story. And there’s reality, back right where we left it.
Seydou and Moussa leave Dakar in Senegal to reach Europe, crossing the perils of the desert, the horrors of detention centers in Libya, and the dangers of the sea. Their journey represents a contemporary Odyssey, metaphorically reflecting the real-life stories of many African ...
An impossible love, an Italian dark and decadent film noir the likes of which we hadn’t seen in a long time.
Adapted from a novel by Roberto Saviano, who also co-authored the screenplay, it brings on screen the worse of what Naples has to offer: a metropolitan jungle where the weak succumb—always.
Inspired by a real story, of course Big Brother would make its entry into Garrone’s realist cinema. An unmerciful mirror of our times.
Raw and cruel like only a medieval story can be. An amazing cast for a fantasy that teeters dangerously on the side of horror.
An all-Italian crime story trying to patch together some sense from news of desperation and violence.
Garrone’s heart and soul are all in the beloved fairy tale, starring Roberto Benigni as Geppetto. The film earned an Oscar nomination for costumes and make-up.
