“Captain’s Log”, Second Evening

The second evening of Trieste’s international film shorts festival was wet not with Mionetto sparkling wine (one of the event’s sponsors), but by a sudden shower which hit in particular the audience sitting in the first rows: it was all the fault of a device with a timer that caused this hilarious unscheduled event.

The first film short of the evening, “Interno 9” – Apartment 9 – by Davide Del Degan from Trieste is an elegant interplay of mirrors revolving around the relationship between a blind girl and a young man. Mystery, irony and music in a production with an excellent visual cut and skilful editing.

The nature of the Russian film short “Neft” is quite different. It clearly takes inspiration from European expressionist cinema. A spellbinding and intense collage of film archive materials updated with digital technologies.
It is a historical and documentary picture with a strong bearing on today’s world.

A valuable artistic and human acquaintance of Maremetraggio is the director from Tuscany, Francesco Falaschi, once again at work with his favourite actress Cecilia Dazzi. A well-experienced duo for fun made of verbal gags at a quick comic pace.

The Ippocampo section finally saw the screening of the eagerly awaited film by Simona Izzo and Ricky Tognazzi “Io no” – Not Me: a complex work based on teamwork with a dense family meaning: its cast includes Francesco Venditti (Simona’s son) and Gianmarco Tognazzi (Ricky’s brother). Both actors won the artistic challenge by two difficult roles.
The main narrative level relates to the difficulty and interweaving of sentimental relations. It also deals consistently with death and escape through the internal conflicts of the four characters.

This time Andro Merkù, who on Saturday evening played the  part of the “expert host”, was called to exhibit himself in one of his funny imitations encouraged by Ricky Tognazzi, who was in the mood for joking. Simona Izzo, and Ricky and Gianmarco Tognazzi took to the stage and gave proof of the excellent relationship established with the city of Trieste and, in particular, with the Maremetraggio Association.

The audience was numerous as always despite the football fever that emptied the streets of Trieste already in the afternoon.

Riccardo Visintin