Mario Martone’s previous Cannes competition entry was the gangster drama Nostalgia (2022).
His latest, a biopic starring Valeria Golino as the novelist Goliarda Sapienza (1924-1996), is a dull movie, raising the question of its very presence in this year’s competition. (They desperately needed an Italian film?)
Grade: C
Sapienza’s five-day prison stint in 1980, after she was broke, and stole a friend’s jewelry, changed her life and introduced her to a new circle of meaningful friends, one of whom is played by Matilda De Angelis.
But nothing else about the story tracks, least of all a nonlinear structure that keeps returning behind bars, is interesting to watch.
The film conveys little understanding of, or even curiosity about, Sapienza’s literary talents.
In the final moments, we are told that she is “considered among the greatest writers of the twentieth century,” but no evidence for that claim was shown.
