Notti Magiche (2018)

Directed by: Paolo Virzì | 125 minutes | comedy | Actors: Mauro Lamantia, GIovanni Toscano, Irene Vetere, Giancarlo Giannini, Roberto Herlitzka, Paolo Bonacelli, Ornella Muti, Marina Rocco, Andrea Roncato, Giulio Scarpati, Emanuele Salce, Giulio Berruti, Ludovica Modugno, Ferrolo Sauccio Soleri, Pa, Simona March Annalisa Arena, Eugenio Marinelli, Regina Orioli, Eliana Miglio, Tea Falco

There is much to enjoy in this mildly satirical ode to the film. A glowing staging, cliffhanger in medias res and an interesting love triangle to begin with. Director Virzì doesn’t even bother introducing his trio of aspiring screenwriters to us. The bleue Antonino (Mauro Lavantia) is the most talented, the roguish Luciano (Giovanni Toscana) a kind of film encyclopedia and the neurotic Eugenia (Irene Vetere) the only character of ‘Notti magiche’. That works well, deepening the role of a young woman between the cinephile characters, culminating in a gratuitous sex scene in an actor’s trailer that ends with a mock pregnancy.

We are already well on our way. The film begins with a corpse in the Tiber, belonging to a film producer (Giancarlo Giannini) who was last seen with the trio and his mistress (Marina Rocco). The film hops from scene to scene like a playing child, while the Mediterranean wind blows away the street noises of Rome. Love for film breathes ‘Notti magiche’, although it remains farcical. Yet you feel young again when Luciano asks an older actress (Ornella Muti) for her panties, she denies wearing them, and he asks her to walk into the bushes to prove it. The acting fun is there. And then we also see television images of Marco van Basten in Orange.

Virzì is a good sprinter, but they stop when they go on for a long time. The film ends in a triptych with an unbalanced character, because the roles of Luciano and Antonino, although well cast, lack depth. There are too many sidelines. But ‘Notti magiche’ is like a summer love: the outcome does not matter, because there should be no outcome. Carpe diem for the men, baked pears for the women: è la vita. Then we go back to the thriller motif with which the film started and everything is tied off after all. As befits a cinephile of course; although Virzì is no Tarantino and certainly no Hitchcock, hope is alive.