Nuovo Olimpo

It's an exploration of an undying love and deep longing.

Something that 'the heart never forgets', come what may. One can do everything to throw roadblocks in one's own way, or detour to distractions, or run away, but the heart is relentless in what it desires.

Good performances from everyone, very believable characters - one could feel the deep ache throughout the movie. But the ending was a bit of a letdown. One would have thought that the sheer force of their feelings would get them to merge, but they inexplicably sabotage themselves again. Though there is an opening left for possible future interaction, the movie actually cuts to an alternate possibility, in the past, when things could have been pleasantly different for them. I wish they had fought for love.

It's based on a true story, so I guess they didn't take liberties.

In 1978, the Istanbul-born director Ferzan ÖZPETEK came to Rome. And that's exactly when his semi-autobiographical film, which he directed for the global streaming platform NETFLIX, takes place.

At the end of the 1970s, Rome and its CINECITTA were the center of the European film industry. Filmmaking is becoming a little more difficult (especially due to the increasing popularity of television in Italy), but CINECITTA can still draw on the triumphs of the past. Classics like IL GIARDINO DEI FINZI-CONTINI show the resolute Titti (great: Luisa RANIERI) in her arthouse cinema NUOVO OLIMPO in the north-east of Rome. The cinema is particularly popular as a meeting place for homosexual men who use the toilet for extensive cruising. The film student Enea (Damiano GAVINO) and the medical student Pietro (Andrea Di LUIGI) also get to know and love each other. The beginning of a great love! But times in Rome back then were extremely complicated for various reasons, as we know from numerous genre films from ItaloCinema. Due to a particularly stupid coincidence, the two young men lose sight of each other. It wasn't until many years later that they met again under dramatic circumstances. The ophthalmologist Pietro is now married to the beautiful Giulia (Greta SCARANO), and the celebrated film director Enea is in a relationship with the robust Antonio (Alvise RIGO)...

Beautiful images from Rome (filmed primarily in the Monte Sacro district on the eastern bank of the Tiber), a romantic love story between two men and a wonderfully nostalgic look at the Italian film world! Despite minor weaknesses in the script, Ferzan ÖZPETEK has managed to create a fairytale-like look back at a bygone era.

Damiano Gavino and Andrea de Luigi are the two splendid protagonists of this wonderful retro-modern melodrama.

I was partially familiar with the Turkish/Italian director Ferzan Ozpeteck. Years ago I saw his Le Fate Ignoranti - titled in the USA with the unimaginative His Secret Life - I remember loving it. His Nuovo Olimpo belongs to the same universe but miles apart. I saw the film last night and I keep thinking about that ending. Did I see what I think I saw? I was completely taken be the gazes of the two actors. I believed it, totally, but I'll see it again, soon. A surprise and a delight. Thank you.

For anyone who is intrigued by the film's title, it is a cinema that shows retro films and is frequented by bisexual and homosexual men for sexual pleasure, and they also see quality films like Pasolini's ' Mamma Roma ' if they want to. The film takes place in Rome, and starting with the 1970's moves forward to our current decade. What links the time span is the enduring love of two men, both bisexual but tending more towards same sex attraction. At a certain point an accident makes them lose each other, and over time they find other partners, one of them female the other male. If you maybe thinking this is kind of like Ira Sach's ' Passages ' it is in my opinion a million miles away from it. Incidentally both films coming out in this troubled year of 2023. Also in my opinion I think this a great film that will last the test of time, and now I should add why. Andrea Di Luigi is perfect as the student doctor, shy at first and Damiano Gavino as a budding film director who is more forceful in his initial approach are perfect in their roles. The sexuality is as truthfully honest as can be and the actors do not shy away from what we so discreetly call their ' private ' parts and bravo to them for doing so. Rare in a mainstream film, and it is all natural and not crying out for publicity. Luisa Ranieri who is the cashier in the cinema moves with us in time, and she gives a powerful performance equal to the men, and in one no spoilers scene moved me to tears with her honesty and moving depiction of what we call unconditional love. No spoilers as to the ending, slightly spoiled by a scene back in the 1970's. The real ending for me which preceded it reminded me of the empty physical place at the end of Antonioni's ' L'Eclisse ' and needed no follow up scene that almost bordered on sentimentality. Ferzan Ozpetek is one of the finest directors we have and I repeat this is a truly great film, and does not beg for attention. In not doing so I hope he gets it and some awards.

The story is so good. Two main actors are amazing. Screenplay, music...are harmony with this film.

Love declined in all its forms, facets, and contradictions.

It is said that the only loves destined to last forever are the impossible ones. You can believe it. You may think differently.

One thing, however, is certain, impossible loves, or rather, those that do not have the opportunity to be lived to the full, are the ones we remember forever.

And the love told by Nuovo Olimpo is part of this category.

Nuovo Olimpo is a film capable of reaching the hearts not only of cinema enthusiasts or Ozpetek fans but of all those who have loved in their lives.

Nuovo Olimpo is pure romance and having, even if only for a couple of hours, this feeling of amazement, passion, disappointment, melancholy, and nostalgia is a true wonder.