Lazzaro felice

Watched the film at the Palic Film Festival few days ago and i'm still under its influence. Happy as Lazzaro is shot on Super 16mm, lending the film a grainy look that evokes warmth and nostalgia. Wonderful film that wraps its hands around you and with its unusual exotic atmosphere doesn't let go till the end. The acting is briilliant, especially from Adriano Tardiolo, extremley talented actor, hope to see him more in the future. Alice Rohrwacher made a masterpiece and without spoiling anything, I deeply recommend you to see it.

Lazzaro is a symbolic character in this Film. With the eyes of an innocent, kindhearted child he connects two worlds-two parts of the story. Lives of enslaves tabaco growers are difficult, manual labor is hard, food is scarce and living arrangements are appalling. Yet, their lives are socially structured, they maintain cultural traditions, live in a beautiful natural environment, eat " real" bread, drink real wine, take care of each other and maintain good spirit. What happens next is heart wrenching, but reflective of today's reality. Good intention pave a road to hell they say. Chips for a meal anyone?

This was not at all what I expected, and I say that as huge praise. For a film to be able to surprise the way this does is a real achievement.

There are some in our lives that exist beyond the scope of time or universally accepted countenance, those like Lazzaro who bear the kindness of a child and the internal strength of an ox. In Alice Rohrwacher junior film Lazzaro Felice (Happy as Lazzaro), the title character develops an unlikely friendship with the heir to a tobacco industry marquis. This same marquis has kept Lazzaro and his kin imprisoned as unpaid workers on a farm isolated from the modern world. The film mesmerizingly drifts between somber and bitter-sweet notes while the tobacco leaves and sway and the sun bakes the earth. Because the work is captured in warm 16mm, the setting feels like a piece of art from a lost age. Every character is real. A pinch is required to remind the viewer that this is not a dream or a production, Lazzaro and his partner in crime Tancredi are flesh and blood. The sound profile's depth compliments Lazzaro Felice's archaic beauty. The score uses music box chiming and staccato piano strikes, both of which echo throughout the Italian hills. Despite the Italian language barrier, one can understand the plot from vocal inflections alone. Lastly, the sound effects are rich. The pitter patter of the wolves' claws over concrete is distinct from the crunch of sand and soil underfoot. Lazzaro Felice is not to be missed. It calls to mind an air of innocence and perseverance in spite of the world. It beckons home the love of youth and family.

"Happy as Lazzaro" feels like a parable with hints of magical realism, and the whole thing was just a bit too obtuse for me to fully enjoy.

There are themes of social repression, economic exploitation, and mankind's abandonment of nature for the more soulless landscapes of urban industrialization, all of which are certainly relevant to the world in which we live. But I found myself hard pressed to feel involved in any of it as explored by this film. Lazzaro is more an idea than an actual character, and I think one of the reasons he's offered as such a blank slate is so that the audience can project on to him whatever they want. I imagine there will be all sorts of different interpretations of this film, who Lazzaro is, and what it is he's meant to signify. I can and have expended that kind of mental energy on answering questions in other movies, and usually enjoy it very much, but I have to feel like the questions are going to be worth answering before I can get my head in that zone, and I didn't with this movie.

Grade: B