Ciao

I recently saw 'Ciao' at a film festival in Australia and it turned out to be one of my favorites. I think it beautifully captured the cautious and quiet interactions we have with people who we barely know and who are from another country and culture. It was also a wonderful example of how we relate to another person who was unknown to us yet deeply loved the same person that we ourselves have loved. The common ground that two people have when they have both independently loved a third is thoughtfully explored.

This movie is for those who love to think about (and ponder) dialog. It is also for people who enjoy a solid script delivered by actors that quietly deliver the goods. To me it was both believable and possible, which made it even more endearing. I was afraid that the film was going to go in a predictable direction and have a Hollywood style ending but this temptation was (thankfully) resisted. Instead the audience was provided with a very moving, heart warming, and realistic conclusion. I felt the movie was full of meaning, but you had to be listening and patient. The movie was about the journey of two people who shared common ground and the connection between them because of it. I recommend it highly.

I see others who reviewed this movie didn't care much for it, but I personally really enjoyed it. I thought the script was well written and included a lot of details that are sometimes left out of movies. The story line had me interested the whole way through. Definitely a movie to watch when you feel like relaxing as it isn't fast moving and the characters/actors are kinda quiet and "tread lightly" through the movie. That being said, it made for a more interesting movie to me as it left more to my imagination and had me glued to the TV begging for things to go the way I wanted them to. I would definitely like to see more from these actors but so far it seems that they aren't in a lot of films. I hope they plan to do more!

CIAO is a quiet little film - on more levels than one. The title of the movie is well chosen: 'Ciao' can mean both hello and goodbye, and that is the essence of this subtle film. Written by director Yen Tan and actor Allesandro Calza it is a very contemporary story about love and enduring feelings. The film takes its time, very literally, dwelling on still shots of doorways, paths, profiles, etc while the message of the film slowly surfaces. It is more an elegy than a story and it works quite well.

We first meet Jeff (Adam Neal Smith) as he is packing up the belongings of his longtime friend Mark who has just died, and in doing so he comes across Mark's computer and discovers messages to and from an Italian man named Andrea (Alessandro Calza), messages that define an internet relationship that ends with Mark's death. Andrea doesn't know about Mark's passing and when Jeff answers one of the emails stating that Mark has died, Andrea states he is on his way to the US for a wedding and that he had planned to meet Mark face to face in Dallas. Jeff extends the invitation to keep Andrea's plans, meets him at the airport, and invites him home where a long series of talks reveal the histories of both men and reminiscences of Mark. The mutual loss - one of a friend, the other of a potential love - mix and a new friendship of understanding and caring is born. Much to the credit of the writing, directing and acting, the ending is unexpectedly real - again recalling the title of the movie.

Some will find this film too slow and too 'empty', but for viewers who appreciate still life paintings and poetry, this film will satisfy.

Grady Harp

Made on the cheap with a no-name cast, this intentionally intimate 2008 drama focuses on the aftermath of an auto accident which killed a young man named Mark, in particular, the impact of his unexpected death on two men – one is his best friend and roommate Jeff, and the other is Andrea, a Genoese Italian with whom Mark has been corresponding online. Mark is shown in a brief silent bit at the very beginning and later in flashback episodes and videotape. Director Yen Tan keeps the story economical by then segueing into a series of e-mails between Jeff and Andrea, at which point we find out Mark died just as Andrea was coming to visit him. Touched by Andrea's sincerity, Jeff invites him to come anyway.

What occurs from that point is not a predictable romance in typical queer cinema fashion but more the escalation of an unwieldy relationship that forms between the two survivors, neither of whom can quite accept Mark's death. It becomes clear that Jeff, a genuine mensch leading an unremarkable life, has unresolved feelings for Mark, and although he's out (thanks to Mark's influence), Jeff cannot liberate himself from the unrequited love he appears to covet. As you would expect, Andrea is serious eye candy with a conscience, a catch by most cinematic conventions, yet the filmmaker focuses on the tentative nature of their burgeoning relationship as an expression of both men's grief.

The only other character in the movie is Jeff's acerbic Asian-American stepsister Lauren, played efficiently by Ethel Lung, but she seems to enter and exit merely to comment on the obvious. The pacing is absurdly slow with lots of close-ups and long takes with little action. As Jeff, Adam Neal Smith is sincere but overly bland, just not compelling enough to maintain the film's emotional pivot point. On the other hand, Alessandro Calza brings sensitivity to the somewhat idealized role of Andrea, perhaps not a coincidence since he is the co-screenwriter (with Tan). The movie slips by unobtrusively in a subdued, almost hushed tone, but despite some awkward moments, including an inevitable scene late in the film, the emotional honesty makes this worth seeing. The 2010 DVD includes a comprehensive if not altogether informative commentary track from Tan and Calza plus the original theatrical trailer.

There is a lot of praise for this little movie. It's well enough deserved as the atmosphere created by the photography is intimate and quiet.

Mark, the principle character, suffers the death of his close friend by an accident. Andrea is a friend that Mark never heard of from his now deceased friend. Mark invites Andrea to visit as the plans were already made before the accident. Andrea is in Italy, Mark is in Texas.

This sort of threw me as it is never made fully known how the deceased friend came to know Andea, other than through the internet. Andrea gets around we learn through his conversations with Mark. In my opinion Andrea is a paid escort but he never confesses this to Mark as he discovers that Mark is a very old friend of the dead guy and had great respect for him. Andrea has feelings and doesn't want to disillusion Mark with his true purpose for the visit.

Andrea goes back to Italy. I state this because Andrea comes across as patronizing and insincere.