2 weeks Ago
“Vermiglio” is the name of the small Alpine town where Maura Delpero’s father grew up and it serves as the setting for her intimate absorbing film that is inspired by her father and family’s life there in the 1940s. Set during the final months of World War II, “Vermiglio” opens with a morning in the household of Cesare Graziadei (Tommaso Ragno), like Delpero’s father, the town’s schoolmaster. Oldest daughter Lucia (Martina Scrinzi) milks the family’s cow.
Her perpetually pregnant mother Adele (Roberta Rovelli) heats the milk and ladles it into bowls, with a piece of bread breakfast for the brood of children who crowd around the table, arranged by age. The kids and Cesare are soon off to school, where he teaches every student the same lesson and, at night, schools townspeople, who amidst their studies talk about the distant war, which enters, in a sense, the town when Pietro (Guiseppe De Dominico), a Sicilian deserter carries wounded Attilio (Santiago Fondavila) home. People are also reading.
.. Viewed with scorn by some of the townspeople and welcomed by Attilo’s family, including the Graziadeis, Pietro instantly develops an eye for Lucia and the two become a couple, eventually marrying in the central plot line of Delpero’s sprawling 2-hour picture.
A feminist film, “Vermiglio” concentrates on three of the daughters, Lucia, the pious Ada (Rachel Potrich), who is discovering her body and, perhaps, attraction to women, and the sharp-minded Flavia (Anna Thaler), who is in competition of sorts with Ana for the opportunity to leave the village for boarding school. Additional characters emerge as the film patiently explores the family and the town — the rebellious Virginia (Carlotta Gamba), who lures Ada into stealing Cesare’s cigarettes, eldest son Dino (Patrick Gardner), who bristles against his stern father, and Adele, who tries to support her children while running the household that lives on the edge of poverty. “Vermiglio” is very deliberately presented, with scenes lingering into each other, long stretches with minimal dialogue and stunning views of the mountainous world that make it one of 2024’s most beautiful films.
But, in step with its pacing, the film gradually pulls in the viewer, becoming fully absorbing in its final hour as the war ends, Pietro sets out for Sicily, promising to return to his pregnant new bride and the melodrama that Delpero has created poignantly plays out. Italy’s entry in this year’s international film Oscar competition, and a winter at last year’s Venice Film Festival, “Vermiglio” is beautifully crafted, very well acted by the cast that includes professionals, like Ragno, whose Cesare becomes more sympathetic through the film, newcomers, like Scrinzi, who is a natural playing the wistful Lucia in her first role, and kids and townspeople recruited to be in the movie. It’s also a film about a specific time and place that feels as if it is taking place then and there, even as it illuminates the stories of the family’s women through contemporary eyes.
As such, Delpero captured, to some measure, her family story and, preserved on film the traditions and lifestyle of the era and delivered a story that resonates no matter the time in which it is set. Reach the writer at 402-473-7244 or kwolgamott @journalstar.com .
On Twitter @KentWolgamott Vermiglio Grade: A Director: Maura Delpero Cast: Tommaso Ragno, Martina Scrinzi, Giuseppe De Domenico, Rachel Potrich, Anaa Thaler Rated: Not Rated Running Time; 1 hour, 59 minutes Now Showing: Ross The Reel Story: This deliberately paced Italian film about a family in a small village during the closing months of World War II is one of the most beautiful films of 2024 and becomes absorbing as its melodrama plays out. Stay up-to-date on what's happening Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! Entertainment reporter/columnist {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items..
