Hey guys, my dear friend from northern England wrote the following email to me a few days ago. He's got around to watch "Along the Ridge". The movie is in our database, but it is not rated yet.
So, I had to tell you about the Italian boy film I saw at the weekend, and again last night
It is Anche Libero va bene (Along the ridge)
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) It’s a film about a single father bringing up two children; his son, Tommi and Tommi’s older sister. The father is prone to acts of extreme rage – the kind of person to throw away an opportunity of a lifetime to prove a point (or the English idiom: To cut ones nose off to spite one’s face
). But he’s a good man at heart and he loves his children dearly – he has hopes and dreams for them and will do anything to make sure they achieve those dreams.
He’s a self-employed camera man who’s short on work. The family has no money and he pays for Tommi’s swimming lessons and dreams that his son will one day be a world class athlete. Tommi would rather play football, to his dad’s horror. This theme runs like thread through the film; it’s the antagonistic chafing between father and son and it fuels the emotion; this, coupled with the children’s estranged mother turning up to up-turn their life.
Now I’ve set the scene, I must explain to you that I’ve never seen a finer performance from a boy. I honestly believe that a finer performance does not exist on film.
The way this was achieved is of some concern to me. The director chose not to give the boy a script; instead he would sit down with him before each scene and explain it in detail: what was going to happen and how the boy should feel.
Then he’d shoot and let natural reaction inspire the magic. Now, this leads to great things for the viewer but at the same time is a little creepy; like the boy is the directors unaware experiment and we’re all behind the one-way glass.
In one scene the family of three are in a car, the father driving with his daughter riding shotgun; the boy behind her. She is annoying him by messing with his hair and stroking his face until he snaps – he pushes her arm away and calls her a slut.
The boy’s father spins around and hits him across the face hard.
This scene is the finest performance of all the fine performances here – the boy doesn’t act, he doesn’t cower away from his father or show anger, he simply displays his disbelief by an awkward and timid shrug, and then bursts into tears.
In this scene I really don’t think the director told him he was going to get hit – his reaction was one of a person that has never been hit before. I think he hit him and filmed him to get the best response, and my god do we benefit.
In another scene he films the boy being chatted up by a girl. This is the most heartwarming scene in the film. The boy actually blushes on camera. He is so totally lost in the realism of the scene he forgets the camera is there.
O, and he’s beautiful. He’s got wonderful green eyes flecked with brown that reflect the scene of a woodland floor. It’s pure innocence and raw beauty.
I urge you to find this immediately, like right now at 2am. I have this copied so I can send you it by post also.
This film epitomises everything we love about boy-cinema. It serves every emotion. It fills every corner of the heart with its honesty and realism.
Can’t wait for you to see it
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Anche libero va bene (2006) (Read 7,138 times)
