By Raffaella Binetti
Gli occhi di Cristo is a vision.
A vision of an unusual everyday life, of an unthinkable however possible reality, of silent dramas that sadly are part of nowadays society.
Luigi Barbieri and the team of the Latino Academy Pictures were proud to present, on 18th July 2007 at the Soho Screening Rooms in London, their new short movie, shot on 35mm, Gli occhi di Cristo (Christ’s Eyes).
The dramatic and austere landscapes of Sant’Agata de’ Goti – a small village on the outskirts of Naples – offers its scenario to the development of this drama, which sees the main character Giovanni, a priest, fighting to hold on to his faith when a psycho murderer confesses of having killed two women.
The confessional, which separate the two men, then becomes the filter of the badness to reach the goodness, the purifying instrument by which the assassin put the father’s strength and faith through the mill, as the father is forced to hold the secret to himself due to the secret of confession.
The two men’s lives will twist around themselves to reach a dramatic although foreseeable end.
The crude gash in the priest’s simple life duly expresses Barbieri’s own style of making movies: the representation of the human beings’ vicissitudes in their dramas, doubts, fears.
A rise of feelings made even stronger and tangible by an excellent photography that learnedly grants the characters with the spontaneity of reality, through half figures and the use of natural lights only.
Christ’s Eyes is the firstborn of the Latino Academy Pictures, film production company – founded in 2001 by Luigi Barbieri, Enrico Scoccia and Massimo Apicella – nourished by the shared passion for independent movies, a way of cinema-making which is not neorealism but considers, introspectively, the vicissitudes of anybody’s everyday life, normal people to whom anything can happen. Among the other films, to point out the short Spleen, winner of the prize as Best Italian Short at the Festival Internazionale di Bra in 2003. Gli occhi di Cristo has been, instead, selected to be part of the 11th annual LA Shorts Fest.
Barbieri’s eyes, focused on the individual dimension, careful to emphasise the intimate times of the characters, is perhaps the result of several years spent in London. And it is indeed between London and Italy that the Latino Academy Pictures moves and operates. Gli occhi di Cristo is not only the brainchild of Barbieri – supported by Stefano Russo on the film-script – but also the product of a brilliant, as well as young, Robin Brown (Neapolitan) director of photography. The group has recently welcomed the participation of the acclaimed art dealer Tony Hart, who has enthusiastically believed and supported the LAP’s projects since its first production.
This is how the LAP has given birth to the union between art and cinematography, whereas photography, as an expression of art, is the fundamental element of a film of quality.
And we may want to wait for the next movie – a feature film as Barbieri anticipates – to see whether these young artists will one day be accredited in the Olympus of the big of the Italian cinematography.
Copyright 2007 GIORGIOSTUDIO Ltd – All rights reserved
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