" From now on, I'll be at your side. Forever, I promise. Just give me time to grow up." Renato
☆☆☆☆☆ Classic
Malèna (2000) is a coming-of-age fable.
Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.
Starring Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro and Luciano Federico among many others.
Giuseppe's film is gorgeous visually, its music is beautiful, but its his star Monica Bellucci who seductively steals the movie with only her quiet presence. The film towards the end goes from its childhood fable and grows up into adulthood. Its a very shocking and unexpected turn, but Monica's performance keeps the story centered. The story's sudden adulthood themes towards the end of film reminds of the scene in the film where the father takes his young son to a brothel. The boy goes into the brothel as a child and comes out a man.
Monica has a handful of lines throughout the film and yet she speaks more with one glance from her soulful eyes then the all the dialogue in the film. As an actor I'm attracted to films where an actor uses their physicality to convey the characters inner dialogue.
In the scene below, I purposely left the dialogue in its original Italian, to show how universal the scene of a young boy's family realizing, confronting and awkwardly accepting his sexual desires. The scene is laugh out loud from beginning to end. The young male and female actors in the scene must have been black and blue after a few takes, because they are getting whacked hard by their onscreen father.
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