Jamie passion and passionfruit!

Marco Tullio Giordana is noted for his period pieces for RAI television and his latest film smacks of the same careful reproduction of the period and rather monotonous pacing.  There is no denying the seriousness of the cast and crew as they recreate this real story of the death of two actors famous during the Fascist regime in WW2 Italy.  The story of how the regime tried to influence the art and muzzle the noted directors of the time and how the wannabe’s tried to use this opportunity to grab fame is well portrayed as is the climactic persecution of such upstarts as the war ends.  The flashback technique is a little irritating in this respect as it takes time to work out who is who.  Acting credits go to Luca Zingaretti who is excellent as Osvaldo Valenti and Monica Bellucci is ever magnetic whenever on screen as the siren Luisa Ferida. All in all the film is a good opportunity to learn about an episode of war and Italian history that has lessons for posterity, but as a movie it does drag in parts and lacks a certain something to lift it into a better category. Interesting but not vital.

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