02/09/2023 - VENICE 2023: Stefano Sollima’s testosterone-fuelled thriller is a finely crafted and well-directed genre film enhanced by the performances of Pierfrancesco Favino and Toni Servillo

Pierfrancesco Favino in Adagio

Fathers who metaphorically devour their children, like the god Cronus; innocent children who are sacrificed by cynical and emotionless fathers at the altar of the money god; and lastly, fathers who sacrifice themselves to atone for their sins. It’s within this oedipal maelstrom of testosterone, completely devoid of women, that Stefano Sollima has set his thriller Adagio [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which is in competition at the 80th Venice Film Festival. The son of Sergio Sollima, described by Quentin Tarantino as "one of the greatest spaghetti-western filmmakers alongside Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci”, Stefano – who is preparing a film entitled Colt, a tribute to Leone – is best known for Suburra [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefano Sollima
film profile], and for the TV series Romanzo criminale and Gomorrah. He has also been busy over the last few years directing US-produced action movies such as Sicario 2: Soldado [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Benicio del Toro, and Without Remorse. His elevated level of directorial craftsmanship is indisputable, and with Adagio, Sollima has returned to his native Rome for a nocturnal crime flick with vaguely psychological overtones, availing himself of a cast including Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea, Adriano Giannini and Francesco Di Leva.

Sixteen-year-old Manuel (Gianmarco Franchini), a slightly naïve boy who’s the son of a former criminal from a Magliana-neighbourhood gang, known as Daytona (Servillo), now shut away at home, having fallen victim to a form of dementia, has been caught out by three crooked Carabinieri officers (Giannini, Di Leva and Lorenzo Adorni), who have been taking photos of him as he has occasionally prostituted himself. The trio want him to infiltrate a gay party and take a snap of a politician as he snorts cocaine, dressed as a fairy. However, Manuel panics and runs away with the photos. He finds refuge at the house of a criminal friend of his father’s (Mastandrea), who gives him the name of someone who might be able to help him extricate himself from this situation: a certain Romeo, also known as “Camel” (Favino), who has just been released from prison after being diagnosed with cancer. The nasty cops embark on a manhunt that will soon turn bloody, in a Rome that is suffocating in the heat, with power cuts a regular occurrence, and with a huge blaze at the gates of the city, threatening the entire population. In fact, Camel was originally banged up because of Daytona, and during the armed robbery, he lost his teenage son. The arrival of his sworn enemy’s young child troubles him deeply, but rekindles his protective instinct.

Written by the director together with Stefano Bises, the movie’s lively pace never peters out, and the film has several twists in store as well as a final shoot-out worthy of a US thriller. Of course, this is a genre film that’s able to justify the grandeur of having a berth in Venice’s competition thanks to the performances of chameleonic actor Favino, on whom the Italian film industry has recently been pinning its hopes a great deal, in the hope of recreating its little star system. As for Servillo, the Neapolitan thesp deftly portrays a hardened and ruthless old gangster, and just the shots of his feet are enough for Sollima to be able to have some fun, explicitly paying tribute to characters who are now part of the global cinematographic consciousness, such as Kevin Spacey’s Verbal from The Usual Suspects and Edward Norton’s Brian from The Score.

Adagio was produced by The Apartment Pictures, a Fremantle Group company, Vision Distribution and Alterego, in collaboration with Sky and Netflix. Its international sales have been entrusted to Vision Distribution.

(Translated from Italian)

Photogallery 02/09/2023: Venice 2023 - Adagio

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Stefano Sollima, Adriano Giannini, Valerio Mastandrea, Pierfrancesco Favino, Anna Ferzetti, Manuela Lamanna, Toni Servillo, Gianmarco Franchini, Alice Sozzi
© 2023 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it