Fabrice Du Welz’s films never leave indifferent and his «Adoration», a feature film that finally arrives in our cinemas almost three years after its presentation at the Locarno Film Festival, is no exception.
The Belgian director made a lot of talk with his controversial debut “Calvaire” in 2004, but in the following years he made other very interesting works, starting with “Alleluia” in 2014. grotesque features, disturbing tones are also not lacking in «Adoration», a film starring Paul, a 12-year-old boy who lives with his mother on the edge of a wood, very close to a psychiatric clinic. Among the patients of the institute is Gloria, a girl with whom Paul establishes a very strong bond from the first glance: the two will run away together in search of a new life.
Set in the Ardennes area, like the other two films by Du Welz mentioned above, «Adoration» is a coming-of-age story in which the two young peers “play” at being adults, but leaving behind a long trail of blood. a product that speaks of strong feelings (the title is not chosen at random), as demonstrated by the essential, yet decisive, final words of a dialogue that leaves numerous interpretations open.
A gothic fairy tale full of suggestions
Du Welz often uses the hand-held camera to make us experience the journey of the two protagonists even more intensely, their inner torments and a union that will become more and more dangerous with the passing of the minutes. photographic that plays well with colors and with the contrasts between lights and shadows: the result is a simple and not memorable product, but well done and cared for at the right point. and this is confirmed by an ever-changing trend, which alternates sequences of great calm with highly dynamic and violent moments in an emotional whirlwind that adequately represents the age that the film has chosen to tell.
Mother Lode
A positive mention also goes to Matteo Tortone’s “Mother Lode”, a film that this week begins a tour that will lead it to be screened in a large part of the peninsula. At the center of the story is Jorge, who leaves his family and his mototaxi work in the suburbs of Lima to seek his fortune in the highest and most dangerous mine in the Peruvian Andes. Isolated on a glacier, La Rinconada, is “the city closest to the sky”: thousands of seasonal workers arrive here every year attracted by the possibility of making a fortune, in the hope of a better life. Presented in Venice at the International Critics’ Week and winner of the title of best film in the EXTR’A section of the African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival in Milan, “Mother Lode” is one of the Italian surprises of the season: a film of great artistic maturity, with an elegant aesthetic and in which the choice of black and white gives even greater charm to the whole operation.Rich of symbolic elements and reflections that remain within us at the end of the vision, this film is a real imaginative journey, full of premonitions and ideas relating to the myth of wealth. An unconventional and courageous film from our home: to see.