Bad Tales

Last updated

Bad Tales
Bad Tales movie poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Damiano D'Innocenzo
Fabio D'Innocenzo
Screenplay byDamiano D'Innocenzo
Fabio D'Innocenzo
Story byDamiano D'Innocenzo
Fabio D'Innocenzo
Produced byAgostino Saccà
Giuseppe Saccà
Starring Elio Germano
Barbara Chichiarelli
Gabriel Montesi
Max Malatesta
Ileana D'Ambra
Lino Musella
Narrated by Max Tortora
Cinematography Paolo Carnera
Edited by Esmeralda Calabria
Production
companies
Distributed byVision Distribution
Release dates
  • 25 February 2020 (2020-02-25)(Berlin)
  • 26 April 2020 (2020-04-26)(Italy)
Running time
98 minutes
CountriesItaly
Switzerland
LanguageItalian

Bad Tales (Italian : Favolacce) is a 2020 Italian-Swiss thriller film written and directed by Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, [1] [2] where the D'Innocenzo brothers were awarded with the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay. [3]

Contents

Plot

Prologue of a narrator who talks about a diary found in the garbage, therefore "a true story, which is not true, or maybe yes".

In the suburbs of Rome, some families live an apparently normal and monotonous life, among terraced houses with gardens. In reality they are dissatisfied, envious, greedy and grotesque people.

Vilma is a girl who is expecting a child with her boyfriend, who lives in hardship and deprivation, without particular ambitions or genuine affection.

The spouses Rosa, an emotionally dry couple, raise their daughter with little love. They do not cultivate true friendships, even though they frequent the Placido family, whom they envy for their children's scholastic success and despise as belonging to the "lower social class".

Bruno Placido is the father of two extremely cultured and educated children, who in reality are not happy at all and suffer the now impassive, now angry and violent behavior of adults. Eldest son Denis builds a homemade bomb to kill his parents who, even if they find out, remain unmoved. Ada, daughter of other neighbors, offers him an intimate meeting, inspired by the videos she sees on her father's cell phone, a proposal that doesn't ensnare him and in the end he gives up.

Amelio lives in a prefab with his shy son Geremia. Childlike and crude, he tries to model his son in his image and likeness of himself. Worried about the episode of the bombs (Geremia was also building one), he decides to leave his job and move to the city, to a popular building where his cousin lives.

The boys' teacher is fired for having provided the rudiments for building bombs so that, before leaving the institute, he induces his students to prepare poison, to be taken at a certain time, in a singular collective suicide rite.

At this point the narrator apologizes for having decided to tell such a sad story and for not wanting to continue a new diary written in his own hand.

Epilogue with Amelio, whose son is the only survivor, who learns from a chronicle of the murder-suicide of Vilma and her boyfriend in Spinaceto, after having drowned their newborn daughter, probably under the influence of drugs: the same opening news.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

Bad Tales has an approval rating of 47% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 19 reviews, and an average rating of 6.6/10. [4] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [5]

Accolades

Bad Tales won the Jury Prize in International Competition at the 2020 Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF), ex aequo with Rocks . [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Red Sorghum</i> (film) 1987 Chinese film

Red Sorghum is a 1987 Chinese film about a young woman's life working in a distillery for sorghum liquor. It is based on the first two parts of the novel Red Sorghum by Nobel laureate Mo Yan.

<i>Fire at Sea</i> 2016 film

Fire at Sea is a 2016 Italian documentary film directed by Gianfranco Rosi. It won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards. It was also selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the awards but it was not nominated in that category.

<i>Touch Me Not</i> 2018 film by Adina Pintilie

Touch Me Not is a 2018 drama film written and directed by Adina Pintilie, starring Laura Benson, Tómas Lemarquis, and Dirk Lange. The film was screened in the main competition section at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Golden Bear. Touch Me Not is an experiment between fiction and documentary, and addresses the prejudices of people related to intimacy.

<i>Transit</i> (2018 film) 2018 German drama film

Transit is a 2018 German drama film written and directed by Christian Petzold. It is based on Anna Seghers's 1944 novel of the same name and adapted to be set in the present. The film follows a refugee who impersonates a dead writer in an attempt to flee a fascist state. The film was a critical success and was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.

<i>So Long, My Son</i> 2019 film

So Long, My Son is a 2019 Chinese drama film directed by Wang Xiaoshuai. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. At the festival, the film won the two main acting awards, with Wang Jingchun and Yong Mei winning the Silver Bear for Best Actor and Actress, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">70th Berlin International Film Festival</span> Film festival

The 70th annual Berlin International Film Festival took place from 20 February to 1 March 2020. It was the first under the leadership of new Berlin Film Festival board: business administration director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian.

<i>All the Dead Ones</i> 2020 Brazilian drama film

All the Dead Ones is a 2020 Brazilian drama film directed by Caetano Gotardo and Marco Dutra. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival.

<i>Delete History</i> 2020 film

Delete History is a 2020 French-Belgian comedy film co-produced, written and directed by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. At Berlin, the film won the Silver Bear 70th Berlinale prize. The film is also scheduled to show at the 2020 Angoulême Francophone Film Festival.

<i>Hidden Away</i> (2020 film) 2020 film

Hidden Away is a 2020 Italian biographical drama film co-written, directed and co-edited by Giorgio Diritti. It stars Elio Germano as Italian painter Antonio Ligabue, who lived a notoriously reclusive life, troubled with physical problems and mental illness.

<i>My Little Sister</i> (2020 film) 2020 film

My Little Sister is a 2020 Swiss drama film written and directed by Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. It was selected as the Swiss entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

<i>Siberia</i> (2020 film) 2020 film

Siberia is a 2020 psychological thriller film directed by Abel Ferrara. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, where it premiered on 24 February 2020.

<i>Undine</i> (2020 film) 2020 film

Undine is a 2020 German-French romantic fantasy drama film directed by Christian Petzold. It had its world premiere on 23 February 2020 at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, where it was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the competition section. Paula Beer won the Silver Bear for Best Actress. It was released in theaters starting in Germany on 11 June 2020.

<i>DAU. Natasha</i> 2020 film

DAU. Natasha is a 2020 Russian-language internationally co-produced drama film directed by Ilya Khrzhanovsky and Jekaterina Oertel. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. At Berlin, the film won the Silver Bear for an Outstanding Artistic Contribution.

Irradiated is a 2020 Cambodian documentary film directed by Rithy Panh. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival.

<i>There Is No Evil</i> 2020 film

There Is No Evil is a 2020 Persian-language drama film directed and written by Mohammad Rasoulof. Banned in Iran, the film relates four stories concerning the death penalty in Iran. It had its world premiere at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Bear.

<i>The Woman Who Ran</i> 2020 film by Hong Sang-soo

The Woman Who Ran is a 2020 South Korean drama film written, produced, directed, edited and scored by Hong Sang-soo. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. At Berlin, Hong Sang-soo won the Silver Bear for Best Director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo</span> Italian film directors and screenwriters

Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo, collectively referred to as the D'Innocenzo brothers, are Italian film directors and screenwriters who collaborated in productions of note.

<i>Schoolgirls</i> (film) 2020 Spanish film

Schoolgirls is a 2020 Spanish coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Pilar Palomero, starring Andrea Fandos and Natalia de Molina.

<i>Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn</i> 2021 Romanian comedy film

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is a 2021 Romanian comedy-drama film written and directed by Radu Jude, and produced by Ada Solomon. It stars Katia Pascariu, Claudia Ieremia and Olimpia Mălai.

<i>Sons</i> (2024 film) 2024 film by Gustav Möller

Sons is a 2024 psychological thriller co-written and directed by Gustav Möller. The film starring Sidse Babett Knudsen and Sebastian Bull is about an idealistic prison officer Eva Hansen, who faces the dilemma of her life when a young man she knows from before is transferred to her prison.

References

  1. "The 70th Berlinale Competition and Further Films to Complete the Berlinale Special". Berlinale. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  2. "Berlin Competition Lineup Revealed: Sally Potter, Kelly Reichardt, Eliza Hittman, Abel Ferrara". Variety. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  3. "Berlin Film Festival 2020: There Is No Evil Wins Golden Bear". Variety. 29 February 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  4. "Bad Tales | Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes .
  5. "Bad Tales". Metacritic .
  6. "JURY & AWARDS". BRIFF. Retrieved 8 May 2021.