Review of Venice: Penelope Cruz in “L’Immensita” by Emanuele Crialese

Even before the participation in the competition of the Venice Film Festival shows its title The immenseWe know that Penelope Cruz is the funniest mom, possibly the only funniest mom in town. She doesn’t just set the table for dinner; She plays music, she leads the children in choreographed dances and sings as they handle plates and cutlery, balanced on the fork like a microphone. Adults bored him. At an elderly relative’s birthday dinner, she crawls under the table to join her children in taking everyone’s shoes off and confusing. “I want to play!” she says, her eyes shining.

The eldest son, also reluctant to grow up for very different reasons, urges him to get back in the chair. He can see where he is going. Mothers shouldn’t play; They have to play cards and do their hair. There are a lot of things not to do in 1970s Rome. Some, like beating your wife, if you are a father and a breadwinner, you can get away with it pretty easily. Others, like wearing boy clothes when you are born a girl, are not so easily rejected.

Adriana (Luana Julani) – Adri is called for a kind of compromise, even if strangers call herself Andrea, an Italian boy’s name: she is 12 years old. For now, Adri is mercifully flat-chested; We first see him on the roof of his apartment building, in an elaborate pentagon of filaments that presumably contain intergalactic energy that he cryptically “will do a miracle.” A few weeks later, he ends up with the same hope in a pile of dusty waffles, causing himself asthma in the process. It is a race against time.

Clara de Cruz and her husband Felice (Vincenzo Amato) hate each other. Divorce is recently legal, but separation is ruled out; There is no way out of the family. Her children, Adri, Gino (Patrizio Francione) and even little Diana (Maria Chiara Goretti) adore their mother, leave ample space for their father and observe the tension between them, resisting the patriarchy with small rebellions in their own home. . can assemble Adri makes regular visits to a nearby gypsy camp, where he timidly meets a girl named Sara, who may or may not realize she’s not a boy, mostly through a game of tags. She is so sweetly sexual and ambiguous because she who knows where she will go Adri’s identity?

Emanuele Crialeze describes his film as a journey into the Roman past, in an era of endless variety shows on Italian television, Polaroids and richly painted and highly flammable furniture. Despite the tidying up of some seemingly weighty topics and the current pain of Adri’s gender dysphoria, which will no doubt draw criticism from those seeking a more careful statement, Crialese maintains a warm tone, a sharp palette, and the brilliance of a more innocent era. However, the facade of innocence was deceptive.

In this spirit, she has chosen several modern pop songs as musical scenes that mimic old TV shows in which the family becomes the protagonist and a choir of schoolgirls performs thousands of dance numbers. There’s no question there’s nothing more protected than the originals, but there’s a heartbreaking, visceral thrill to watching Penelope Cruz play The Girl as Adri Tucci lip-syncs Italian TV’s answer to Johnny Cash.

It ends with a number of cabarets, a festive climax to the family history. Nothing is solved; Nobody’s chance of happiness is greater than it was in the beginning; The most that can be said is that at least they have bought a new throne, even if it is no less likely to burn than the old one. stop thinking about it and The immense He is basically quite dark, but he has a surprisingly cheerful face.