Sicilian Ghost Story

Last updated

Sicilian Ghost Story
Sicilian Ghost Story.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Fabio Grassadonia
Antonio Piazza
Written byFabio Grassadonia
Antonio Piazza
Release dates
  • 18 May 2017 (2017-05-18)(Cannes)
  • 18 May 2017 (2017-05-18)(Italy)
Running time
122 minutes
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian

Sicilian Ghost Story is a 2017 Italian drama film directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza. It is based on the real-life "The White Knight" short story in the We Won't Be Confused Forever volume by Marco Mancassola. [1] [2] and was screened in the Critics' Week section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. [3] [4]

Contents

Plot

In a little Sicilian village at the edge of a forest, Giuseppe, a boy of 13, vanishes. Luna, his classmate who loves him, refuses to accept his mysterious disappearance. She rebels against the silence and complicity that surround her, and to find him she descends into the dark world which has swallowed him up and which has a lake as its mysterious entrance. Only their indestructible love will be able to bring her back alive.

Production

The film is inspired by true events and takes place in the 1990s in Sicily. It is dedicated to the memory of Giuseppe Di Matteo, abducted in 1996 and then brutally killed on orders of Sicilian Mafia boss Giovanni Brusca in order to silence his father, a cooperating witness. [5] [6]

Reception

Critical response

Sicilian Ghost Story opened the 56th Critics' Week at Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2017. It was the first time an Italian film opened the Critics' Week, and received a ten-minute standing ovation.

The film holds a 91% approval rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 45 reviews with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's consensus reads: "Sicilian Ghost Story uses a horrific real-life story as the framework for a powerfully acted foray into surprisingly beguiling fantasy territory." [7] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generaly favorable reviews". [8]

Variety 's review was outstandingly positive, stating that “with outstanding cinematography, underwater scenes and magical storytelling, the co-directors found a beautiful and strong way to tell such a tough story based on true events.” [9]

The Hollywood Reporter described the film as a "Superb technical work transforms cruel reality into a fable with many ramifications," stating that "If Grassadonia and Piazza had simply retold the story, it would have been gripping enough, but they deepen the intensity and widen the meaning by letting the tale unfold in a strange filmic space between cruel reality and ghostly fantasy." [10]

Awards and nominations

Sicilian Ghost Story won the 63rd David di Donatello for Best Adapted Script.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palermo</span> City in Sicily, Italy

Palermo is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is in the northwest of the island of Sicily, by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Falcone</span> Italian judge (1939–1992)

Giovanni Falcone was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 23 May 1992, Falcone was assassinated by the Corleonesi Mafia in the Capaci bombing, on the A29 motorway near the town of Capaci.

San Giuseppe Jato is a village in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily, southern Italy.

<i>The Leopard</i> (1963 film) 1963 historical drama film by Luchino Visconti

The Leopard is a 1963 epic historical drama film directed by Luchino Visconti. Written by Visconti, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Enrico Medioli, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Massimo Franciosa, and an uncredited René Barjavel, the film is an adaptation of the 1958 novel of the same title by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinisi</span> Comune in Sicily, Italy

Cinisi is a town and a comune in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily. As of 1 January 2022 it has a population of 11.846.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2003 Cannes Film Festival</span> 56th edition of the international film festival

The 56th Cannes Film Festival started on 14 May and ran until 25 May 2003. It showcased a diverse selection of international films from various genres. French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer Patrice Chéreau was the president of the jury. The Palme d'Or went to the American film Elephant by Gus Van Sant based on the Columbine High School massacre.

Santino Di Matteo, also known as Mezzanasca, is an Italian former member of the Sicilian Mafia from the town of Altofonte in the province of Palermo, Sicily, Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1973 Cannes Film Festival</span> Film festival edition

The 26th Cannes Film Festival was held from 10 to 25 May 1973. The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film went to Scarecrow by Jerry Schatzberg and The Hireling by Alan Bridges. At this festival two new non-competitive sections were added: 'Étude et documents' and 'Perspectives du Cinéma Français'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pino Puglisi</span> Italian Roman Catholic priest (1937–1993)

Giuseppe "Pino" Puglisi was a Roman Catholic priest in the rough Palermo neighbourhood of Brancaccio. He openly challenged the Sicilian Mafia who controlled the neighbourhood, and was killed by them on his 56th birthday. His life story has been retold in a book, Pino Puglisi, il prete che fece tremare la mafia con un sorriso (2013), and portrayed in a film, Come Into the Light in 2005. He is the first person killed by the Mafia who has been beatified by the Catholic Church.

Joachim Trier is a Danish-born Norwegian filmmaker. His films have been described as "melancholy meditations concerned with existential questions of love, ambition, memory, and identity." He has received numerous nominations including for a Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Cesar Awards, and three Cannes Film Festival Awards.

<i>Reality</i> (2012 film) 2012 Italian drama film

Reality is a 2012 Italian drama film directed by Matteo Garrone and stars Aniello Arena, Loredana Simioli, and Claudia Gerini. The narrative is set in the world of reality television, and follows a Neapolitan fishmonger who participates in Grande Fratello, the Italian version of Big Brother. The film won the Grand Prix award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 Cannes Film Festival</span> Film festival

The 66th Cannes Film Festival took place in Cannes, France, from 15 to 26 May 2013. Steven Spielberg was the Jury President for the main competition. New Zealand film director Jane Campion was the head of the jury for the Cinéfondation and Short Film sections. French actress Audrey Tautou hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. Actress Kim Novak was named guest of honour and introduced a new restored version of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. The festival poster featured the real-life couple and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward kissing during the shooting of A New Kind of Love.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 Cannes Film Festival</span> 2017 film festival in Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur, France

The 70th Cannes Film Festival took place from 17 to 28 May 2017, in Cannes, France. Spanish film director and screenwriter Pedro Almodóvar was the president of the jury for the festival and Italian actress Monica Bellucci hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. Ismael's Ghosts, directed by French director Arnaud Desplechin, was the opening film for the festival.

<i>Ava</i> (2017 French film) 2017 film

Ava is a 2017 French drama film directed by Léa Mysius in her feature-length directorial debut. It was screened in the Critics' Week section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes, it won the SACD Award.

<i>Tehran Taboo</i> 2017 film

Tehran Taboo is a 2017 Persian-language German-Austrian animated romance film directed by Ali Soozandeh.

<i>Makala</i> (film) 2017 film

Makala is a 2017 French documentary film directed by Emmanuel Gras. It was screened in the Critics' Week section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes, it won the Nespresso Grand Prize.

<i>The Traitor</i> (2019 film) 2019 film by Marco Bellocchio

The Traitor is a 2019 internationally co-produced biographical crime drama film co-written and directed by Marco Bellocchio, about the life of Tommaso Buscetta, the first Sicilian Mafia boss who was treated by some as pentito. Pierfrancesco Favino stars as Buscetta, alongside Maria Fernanda Cândido, Fabrizio Ferracane, Fausto Russo Alesi and Luigi Lo Cascio.

<i>I Lost My Body</i> 2019 film

I Lost My Body is a 2019 French adult animated fantasy drama film directed by Jérémy Clapin, based on the novel Happy Hand by Guillaume Laurant. It premiered in the Critics' Week section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Nespresso Grand Prize, becoming the first animated film to do so in the section's history. The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards.

Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza are an Italian duo of screenwriters and directors.

Sicilian Letters is a 2024 crime drama film written and directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza. The film stars Elio Germano as Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro and Toni Servillo as Catello, an operative in the Italian secret service.

References

  1. Astarita, Claudia. "Between fiction and reality: art vs mafia". This is Italy-Panorama. This is Italy-Panorama. Archived from the original on 15 December 2017.
  2. Mancassola, Marco. "Non Saremo Confusi Per Sempre". Marco Mancassola. Marco Mancassola. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  3. "Selection of the 56th Critics' Week". Semaine de la Critique. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  4. "56th Critics' Week Press Kit" (PDF). Semaine de la Critique. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  5. Paternò, Cristiana. ""Sicilian Ghost Story": from Sicily to Argentina". Cinecittâ News. Cinecittâ News. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  6. McLaughlin, Katherine (12 October 2017). "Thelma LFF film review: "exquisitely crafted depiction of oppression"". Sci-Fi Now. Sci-Fi Now. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  7. Sicilian Ghost Story
  8. https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sicilian-ghost-story?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c
  9. Weissberg, Jay (19 May 2017). "Cannes Film Review: 'Sicilian Ghost Story'". Variety. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  10. "'Sicilian Ghost Story': Film Review | Cannes 2017". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 15 April 2018.