09/04/2025 - Actor Luca Zingaretti’s directorial debut about a young man addicted to drugs explores the transformation of pain into a growth journey, whilst keeping emotions under control

Twenty-year-old Roman boy, Marco, has to take part in a poetry reading. He’s nervous and agitated, so a few drinks in a local bar to help him relax won’t hurt. But Marco is an alcoholic and a drug addict; after his mother died he dropped his studies, his friends and his girlfriend and he started drinking and snorting coke. He subsequently climbs into his car, drunk, and crashes into a lorry. This is how we’re introduced to the protagonist of La casa degli sguardi, which is the directorial debut of the highly popular actor Luca Zingaretti (who plays Inspector Montalbano in the homonymous series, sold in over 60 countries) and which was presented in Rome Film Fest in October and in Bari’s BIF&ST in March, and which is due for release on 10 April via Lucky Red. Loosely based on Daniele Mencarelli’s novel of the same name, La casa degli sguardi is a film about the possibility of turning pain into a personal growth journey, moving from self-destruction to redemption.

Gianmarco Franchini (who turned heads in Adagio [+see also:
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In this his first experience behind the cameras, Zingaretti demonstrates great sobriety and straightforwardness in his intentions, moving carefully through thorny territory without sliding into melodrama or taking too many liberties with the film’s form. Drawing on his copious experience in the film and, primarily, the TV world, the director provides viewers with a reassuring experience, focusing more on controlled emotions than on drama (reminiscent of several heartrending moments in the relationship between the father and his drug-addicted son in Felix van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy). Zingaretti is more interested in the social side of the story, hinting at the salvific power of work and the importance of human relationships. Helped by his expert director of photography Maurizio Calvesi, the director also pays loving tribute to the beauty of his city. Gianmarco Franchini confirms he’s a promising, magnetic talent, despite being trapped in the not-too-credible narrative cliché of the “poète maudit”.  Shown twice by the director, poet Alda Merini’s verse which is projected onto the staircase of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna almost seems “blasphemous”. She really was “cursed”.

La casa degli sguardi was produced by Bibi Film and Clemart together with RAI Cinema, Stand by Me and Zocotoco.

(Translated from Italian)