The pitch-black soul of the latest Pupi Avati movie (with the posh return of Edwige Fenech)

In recent years, it has been cinema Bobby Avati It cuts through the minimalist, meticulous essentials without any moral escape and no soul rest. The sort of maniacal dramatic entanglement that Avati has experienced re-suggests with a weapon of wistful nostalgia for his (his own) past that sometimes borders on little postcards of horror detail. In case Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Timein theaters from May 4, the obsession that pulses constantly inside and outside the novel, between the early seventies of memory and in today’s palace of eternal yesterday, is the obsession of the protagonist Marzio (Ludo Jinzi as a young man, Gabriel Lafia As an old man): on the one hand, the regret that never subsides at the idea of ​​succeeding in the world of music with the duet I Leggenda that would have needed the enthusiasm and energy that his friend Samuele (Nick Russo, classic acting but a nice surprise) intent on making a career in the then-unprolific banker; On the other hand, a deep, uncontrollable jealousy, which is also never asleep, towards the beautiful, obedient and open Sandra (Camila Sirullo as a young man, Edwige Fenech as an old woman) became a wife, then an ex-wife, and finally rekindled the flame in old age.

Here, despite the space-time double dimension being constantly mixed between the present and the past (perhaps a little more play in favor of the ’70s), Avati (on the screenplay sans his brother Antonio, producer here only) enforces Marzio’s obsession (regret and jealousy) in a timeless, quadrangular, and incoherent way. Reversible as if the protagonist lives an eternal cycle of negative reference peppered constantly Drunkenness, grumpy and deceitful Which can not pacify or erase anything. Very black soul The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time falls into this pesky framework that repeats itself over and over. Two examples: the piece of music, always the same, always the same, always terribly loser (even if its creator is loved and cared for) that plays all over the place as if Marzio has no ‘ammo’ or the moment when even an image splits Marzio to a three-part split screen in today’s terrifying TV special. Finally we said apocalyptic postcards. Beyond the slightly coarse-grained digital effects, the elliptical tracing shot of the girls’ faces in front of the old ice cream stand where Marzio first meets Sandra (thankfully not always Rome as a geographically sentimental Madeleine but Bologna) seems more important as a precipitate than a evil nightmare A timeless memory of fading fun, premonition and expressive urgency. avatiana has been courting since the days of ’70s horror movies. Fenech’s deluxe return to cinema after 20 years complete with a mention of the action comedy with a shower scene…which doesn’t work however.