julianbarbieri

I'm sorry to report that Michele Placido's "Il Grande Sogno" is a mess. It meanders from one predictable point to another even more predictable. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect is that Placido tries to pass on this pastiche as a serious personal memory. Nono of it clicks, everything looks and feels like a sentimental invention. Riccardo Scamarcio has an interesting face but he's just plain boring on the screen because I can't believe anything he says or does. Jasmine Trinca is a very special actress but she has a soap opera character to play. She gives it dignity and her effort is to be applauded but why, just tell me why Placido had to show her naked, a total full frontal in the most gratuitous fashion imaginable. Luca Argentero on the other hand is engaging and convincing and although I couldn't believe in his character I believed in him. "Il Grande Sogno" is a long, pretentious and altogether pointless film. Why was it in competition at Venice?

I need to know! Not just who is Michael Heneke but also who does he think he is? The arrogance of his work is only comparable to its brilliance. Here he visits Bergman territory without telling us so but just the faces of the actors in glorious black and white scream of Bergman. What a delightful annoyance. As anybody who is familiar with the work of Michael Heneke will suspect, this new opus, will provoke you in so many different ways that you will want to leave theater many times but you won't be able to, I certainly couldn't. This man is a wizard of sorts. I can't think of no other director who could get away with this in the new millennium. I haven't even started to talk about the film yet and I'm not going to. I'm just going to say that it's a mystery in more ways than one and that you may hate it but won't be able to forget it.