Not many years have passed since the death of 17 years in a coma Elwana Englaro had shocked Italian public opinion. In February 2009, Englaro who had been in a coma since the 1992, after a car accident, died while the Italian Senate was debating in an emergency session the passage of Silvio Berlusconi's bill on compulsory feeding of patients in hospitals.
The request by Englaro's parents, who had repeatedly expressed their wish that she not live should she fall into a coma, amounted to euthanasia, which is illegal in Italy. With the support of the Vatican, Berlusconi drafted the law on compulsory feeding.
One of the people who were shocked by the Englaro case was the teenager – then – daughter of Marco Bellocchio. Talking to her, the Italian director came up with the idea of a film that would raise hot issues and dilemmas such as, in this case, euthanasia. The film called "Unseen Beauty" (Sleeping Beauty) and starring Tony Servillo and Isabelle Hyper, it was screened on Wednesday in competition in Mostra and received warm applause
Having the Elwana Englaro case constantly in the background, Bellocchio sets up short stories of death that take place in Rome. The most interesting of all is that of a senator (Tony Servillo) who is living the exact same drama as his wife who is dying of cancer and is determined to vote against the bill.
"There is no neutrality in Art, but the film is not a manifesto either," said the leftist Marco Bellocchio who had admired the lonely attitude of Englaro's father and was shocked by the way the media handled the event and also by the political dimension the issue had taken. "I want to believe that my film is serious and non-ideological and above all open to different points of view" he added.
Voyeuristic wandering
The sex, drugs and crime, permanent reflections of the "provocative" American director Harmony Korine, student of the equally challenging (but a better director) Larry Clark, dominate his latest creation as well, "Spring breakers" which is shown today Wednesday in a competition in Mostra.
We follow the adventures of four girls in Miami during Spring break, an American custom, according to which, shortly before the end of the academic term, students go on a two-week break.
Relaxation, sure, we mean nothing stands still. The girls go prepared for everything and Korain's lens with a voyeuristic mood captures every graphic detail emphasizing young girls' backsides and breasts. Such rabid cinematography of bare flesh can only be expected from the deeply deprived.
The interest in the film is its cast. Corinne cast actors closely associated with teen movies such as singer Selena Gomez and Ashley Benson as well as James Franco as a Miami criminal rapper who takes the four girls under his wing.
Source : tovima.gr
