29/08/2024 - VENICE 2024: The second feature by Valerio Mastandrea is a small and surreal romantic comedy with a very original idea at its base

Valerio Mastandrea and Dolores Fonzi in Feeling Better

“I see dead people”, murmured little Cole in The Sixth Sense. Spectators instead see people in comas in Feeling Better [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the second feature by Valerio Mastandrea (director and actor, who recently played the violent and dancing husband in There Is Still Tomorrow [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paola Cortellesi
film profile]), the opening film of the Orizzonti section at the 81st Venice Film Festival. Mastandrea’s film is a small and surreal romantic comedy that nevertheless deviates from the usual ghost film thanks to its very original central idea, which could also work well outside Italian borders and even inspire remakes.

The protagonist of the story is “him” (played by the filmmaker himself), a man who has remained in a coma after a rather bizarre incident: a 10-year-old kid fell on his head from the second floor window of a building. Everyone believes he tried to save the child, who goes to find his hero in hospital to read him poetry. What we might call his doppelganger is near the bed and no one can see him. Like him, the other patients in comas in this hospital wander and interact with each other like doubles suspended in a limbo that could end with the “miracle” of reawakening (perhaps thanks to medical treatment) or with death. Amongst the others, there is the Curious One (Lino Musella) and the Veteran (Laura Morante), the latter of which has now been in a coma for years. The only person who can perceive them is a volunteer practising musical therapy despite being terribly tone deaf (Giorgio Montanini, a pioneer of stand-up comedy with a ferocious sense of humour for whom cinematic roles are always too small).

He is disenchanted, caustic and with a childish side (Mastandrea’s sense of humour has always been measured against these elements), and he seems at ease in this parallel reality that relieves him of the responsibilities of existence – until he sees his non-life turned upside-down by the arrival, in a coma of course, of a woman with a pronounced Hispanic accent (Argentinian actress Dolores Fonzi). After a few skirmishes and misunderstandings, the two doubles confess to being mutually in love and live idyllic moments: after a walk at the bottom of the swimming pool, he takes her to meet his father (such an Italian thing to do). Obviously, this suspension can’t last eternally and they will have to deal with that very strong wind that announces the end and carries away the comatose.

Feeling Better is a melancholy love story full of humour that, through its concept of the double, expresses our fears of losing loved ones and the need to reconfigure and transform our identity. Written by the director with Enrico Audenino, the film is supported by the great performances of its four main protagonists and by a direction that is aesthetically conventional but dynamic (the DoP is Guido Michelotti) and also uses a few visual effects (by Rodolfo Migliari and Roberto Saba).

Feeling Better is an Italian production by HT Film, Damocle and Tenderstories with Rai Cinema. Fandango handles international sales.

(Translated from Italian)

Photogallery 28/08/2024: Venice 2024 - Feeling Better

16 pictures available. Swipe left or right to see them all.

{0} of {1}

Valerio Mastandrea, Dolores Fonzi, Lino Musella
© 2024 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it