Displaying items by tag: Riccardo Scamarcio

THE INVISIBLE WITNESS/ IL TESTIMONE INVISIBILE

Italy, 2018, 102 minutes, Colour.

Riccardo Scamarcio, Miriam Leone, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Maria Paiatto, Sara Cardineletti.

Directed by Stefano Mordani.

It should be noted first that this is a detailed remake of the Spanish thriller, Contratiempo, released two years earlier. Critics have praised the Spanish film as superior to the Italian remake.

However, many audiences will come to the Italian film without having seen the Spanish version.

This is a drama about a successful businessman from Milan, wife and daughter, successful enterprises, but entangled with the mistress and involved with her death. Then arrested for murder.

One of the benefits of the film is that popular Italian actor, Riccardo Scamarcio plays the central role. While action is in the present, especially when the businessman meets his lawyer, a strong-minded older woman who challenges his explanations at every step, there are many flashbacks to his basic situation, his family life, travelling with his mistress, a car accident on a highway in the countryside, a witness, and the behaviour of the couple, the disposing of the body…

In the later part of the film, the story is told from the perspective of the dead woman, the audience having to retrace the steps, and with an entirely opposite explanation of the scenario.

And the psychological impact is strengthened when the audience is introduced to the parents of the young man who was killed in the car accident – and revelations about their involvement in the investigation and prosecution of the businessman. And, to the surprise of most audiences, a revelation about the lawyer.

This reviewer has not seen the Spanish version. But, this Italian treatment of the story is interesting and intriguing.

1. The title? The crimes, reconstructions, explanations, the range of potential invisible witnesses?
2. The setting, the city and offices, homes, the luxury hotel in the mountains, interiors, the highways, forests and lakes, atmosphere? The musical score?
3. A remake of a Spanish film, close use of the original screenplay? Italian perspective?
4. The complexity of the screenplay, audience attention? The basic situation, the death of Laura and Adriano accused, the accident on the highway and the cover-up? The interconnections?
5. Adriano and his character, professed love for his wife and children, his relationship with Laura, the business deals and money? His arrest, accusation for the murder of Laura? Paolo and his legal aid, the phone calls? The hiring of Virginia?
6. Virginia, strong character and presence, not having lost cases, the discussions with Adriano, testing him, giving alternatives, his contradicting himself, his fears, confidence, the power of gradually persuading him to tell the truth? The relationship between them, intense interactions? Her skills, phone calls, information about witnesses, anonymous, the DA? The discussion about the accident, the flashbacks, what happened, Laura and the family, the dead man, framing him for robbery? Building up the support for Adriano, her getting him to tell the truth, contradict himself, her suggesting the opposite scenarios? The final revelation of who she was, the literal unmasking? The real Virginia arriving at the end?
7. The situation of the accident, Adriano meeting with Laura, the respective spouses, the deceit, not in Paris? The rendezvous? Driving, the deer, the driver crashing, the decisions, from Laura’s perspective, her taking charge, the driver passing by, her concealing the body, the blood, taking the wallet? Leaving Adriano to dispose of the body, in the woods, his sensing someone present, the car in the lake? And Virginia’s later reversing the scenario and its being visualised, Adriano and his initiative, Laura in fear?
8. The story of Laura, the breakdown, Tommaso passing by, offering to help, going to his house, his fixing the car, meeting his wife, the story of his son? Laura’s realisation? Her leaving? The consequences, her husband, the meeting with Adriano, the remote hotel, the scenario of her death, the possibilities for Tommaso following, killing her, framing Adriano? The later possibility of Adriano having murdered Laura?
9. The character of Tommaso, love for his son, relationship with his wife, his presence, at the hotel, the revelation of the apartment opposite, an invisible witness, watching, he and his wife setting up Adriano and Laura? With the police, the interrogations?
10. The complexity by the end of the film, the possible scenarios, Adriano and guilt, Laura and guilt, the revelation of the real identity of Virginia? The husband and wife pursuing Adriano?
11. The end, the audience taking stock of what they had seen, responsibilities, characters, deceptions, the future?

VANISHED INTO THE NIGHT/ SVANITI NELLA NOTTE

Italy, 2024, 92 minutes, Colour.

Riccardo Scamarcio, Annabelle Wallis, Massimiliano Gallo, Gaia Coletti, Lorenzo Ferrante..

Directed by Renato de Maria.

The Italian title of this thriller indicates that children vanished during the night – but the English title is somewhat evocative, that they vanished into the night.

The film focuses on a couple, long married, he Italian and something of a gambler, she American with medical and psychological qualifications. But, there are in process of divorce. They are both devoted to their children.

While the children are with their father for an evening, they disappear. He is frantic, receives a ransom note, confers with his wife, agrees to do a job for a long time friend who is a drug dealer, sailing his boat across to the Greek coast, collecting the drugs. On the way back, his engine gives out, the Coast Guard help him, and he rushes to meet the deadline for the ransom money.

But, there is a significant twist in what actually happened about the kidnapping, the children appearing and reacting quite normally when their father returns.

Brief, good performances from the leads, and an interesting twist (which, of course, some might have anticipated).

1. The title, the Italian indicating “during the night”? The English indicating disappearance “into the night”?
2. The Italian setting, the vistas of the city of Bari, the city centre, homes and streets, the coast, the Adriatic, the Greek coast and restaurant? The musical score?
3. The mystery of the disappearance of the children? Suspects? Ransom? Audiences mystified – receiving what had happened?
4. Marriage, the background, her medical qualifications, psychological qualifications? American? The marriage to Pietro, Italian, his gambling? The two children, their care for them?
5. The divorce proceedings, bitter elements, custody issues?
6. The sequences of each parent with the children, love for the children, the children and their liveliness?
7. The children with their father, spending the night, his watching the football, the disappearance, his search, desperate, his wife, her arrival? Her anger with him? The ransom note, €150,000 asked?
8. The friendship with Nicola, suspicious? Pietro and his going to Nicola, the arrangement for the money, the promise, his having to sail to Greece, the restaurant, the advice, the drugs, bring them back, the cash?
9. The voyage, the restaurant, the kindly waiter, no contact, the boat, the two men, the drugs, checking the sale, giving the cash? Pietro hiding it? Going back to Italy, the engine failure, the Coast Guard, their arrival, fixing the boat, accompanying the boat? Pietro desperate, the phone calls, running, the bus, to Nicola, his being drunk, crowded, his taunting Pietro? The fight, giving him the money?
10. Pietro returning home, the capture case in the toilet, his suspicions, confronting his wife?
11. Her plan, drugging the children, returning them, her plan for the divorce, for custody in America? The confrontation at the airport, his threats, the reaction of the children? His taking them back home – and his wife reappearing? A future?