Venue: Venice Film Festival, Orizzonti
Mirko Locatelli's "The First Day of Winter" is a slow-paced, moody feature debut that gets under the skin despite suffering from too many, and too often recurring, elements. Although it feels like a compelling short film stretched too thin and will most likely be relegated to a festival life, the film establishes Locatelli as an interesting new director.
Valerio (Mattia De Gasperis) is a teenage loner growing up poor in a small town in northern Italy. He whiles away his days between school, swimming practice and long drives on his rickety moped. He also spies on Matteo (Andrea Semeghini) and Daniele (Alberto Gerundo), two popular classmates who constantly pick on him and share a secret.
When in the second act Valerio begins blackmailing them to avenge his frustrations and an emotional turbulence he is unable to express, the story becomes less convincing. The Matteos and...
Mirko Locatelli's "The First Day of Winter" is a slow-paced, moody feature debut that gets under the skin despite suffering from too many, and too often recurring, elements. Although it feels like a compelling short film stretched too thin and will most likely be relegated to a festival life, the film establishes Locatelli as an interesting new director.
Valerio (Mattia De Gasperis) is a teenage loner growing up poor in a small town in northern Italy. He whiles away his days between school, swimming practice and long drives on his rickety moped. He also spies on Matteo (Andrea Semeghini) and Daniele (Alberto Gerundo), two popular classmates who constantly pick on him and share a secret.
When in the second act Valerio begins blackmailing them to avenge his frustrations and an emotional turbulence he is unable to express, the story becomes less convincing. The Matteos and...
- 9/4/2008
- by By Natasha Senjanovic
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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