VERMIGLIO

Ιούν 07, 2025 Κινηματογράφος 0

MOVIE REVIEW

HISTORICAL COMPARISONS

Vermiglio: by Giannis Fragoulis

We saw the film at the Alex Summer Cinema in Thessaloniki. A co-production of Italy, France and Belgium, the film directed, written and produced by Maura Delpero, enchanted us. We will explain, in this text, why.

Vermiglio: The movie

In a mountain village in northern Italy, shortly after the end of World War II, lives a large family: The stern father, the teacher, the mother who distributes her hug justly to all the children, the boys and girls who translate the universe of the adults, each in their own way, the adult daughter who falls in love with a deserter.

All around them, the seasons are changing and leaving their beautiful imprints on nature. The villagers have their own habits and rituals. The lives of ordinary people stoically face everything that fate throws at them. A whole lost world is revived in Maura Delpero’s exquisite film, making it a proud cinematic descendant of Italian neorealism.

The film first introduces us to the family and the village. Its narrative is fragmentary. There are narrative points that are not sufficiently connected to each other. The viewer has to make the connections. The director wants us to know the local community so that we can, in the end, draw our own conclusions.

Vermiglio: The totalitarianism

What we see is a society living in times gone by, regarding the urban environment. Poverty is the main feature of everyday life. But what matters is the totalitarianism that characterizes the local society. The father rules, commands and always gets his way. For the woman there is nothing left but to obey.

Nevertheless, love launches a revolution, at least in a small part of society, in two young children. The teacher is the father of the young girl who falls in love with a deserter. He is very strict, but we see that he is interested in developing his students. His daughter, under his nose, is having sexual relations with the deserter they are hiding. This is a major contradiction.

All the narrative parts begin to come together when the two young men marry. The air of liberation from the Germans, after the end of World War II and the retreat of the Germans, is an optimistic note. Spring, the wedding, the celebration. As poor as their lives are, they know how to rise above their circumstances.

Vermiglio: The connections

The director connects all the parts and unites this small part of the Italian countryside with the rest of the country when the groom travels to Sicily to find his parents, not to worry because they will think everything he is dead. He never returns. The answer to “why” will come long after: he is a bigamist and his wife, in Sicily, killed him when she found out he had remarried. From this narrative moment the tragedy unfolds.

The teacher loses his authority in the local community. His daughter has shut herself off and does not communicate. She looks as if she does not want to take out of her womb her child, the seed of this man. She finally gives birth and decides to go to Sicily. This trip is a purification ceremony. She understands her situation when she sees this woman who murdered her husband. She understands that her child is precious to her life, this woman tells her. She returns. She is now loving, affectionate with her child and prepares to go to the city to work, leaves her child in a home, promises to return.

Vermiglio: The integration

The director ties up all the loose ends in the end. She offers us a picture that has as many missing pieces as the viewer needs to let his or her psychic world structure his or her own story, his or her own Italy. Finally, it makes a reference to the past, some 60 years ago, to refer, implicitly, to its contemporary Italy.

Totalitarianism is back. It shows us these issues that are ringing the alarm bell for an Italy that wants to make its mark in modern, competitive Europe. The solution to the tragedy for this family and – above all for the young girl – is a proposal for today’s Italian reality. The viewer will have to find the thread of the contemporary narrative. This is how the film works productively.

The editing builds the rhythm needed to structure the characters and, then, for this era to emerge as the referent for today’s. Through contrasts the narrative folds and, ultimately, takes off. The direction knows what to highlight and exactly where to place it. It also knows how to teach the actors so that they are the realistic characters that should be present in this narrative that lies between realism and poetry.

Vermiglio: The actors

The actors play very well, even the young children. They are realistic characters of Italy in 1944, but they leave a little unpredictability just enough to give room for the birth of the modern characters, the Italian society that is searching. The sets and costumes are completely realistic so that there is a measure of comparison. The photography is as realistic as it needs to be to convey this era and the escape from realism. A film, loaded with awards, in Italy and elsewhere, that should not be missed.

VERMIGLIO

Directed by Maura Delpero

Screenwriter: Maura Delpero

Photography by Mikhail Krichman

Editing: Luca Mattei

Music: Matteo Franceschini

Sound: Dana Farzanehpour, Marie Mougel, Hervé Guyader

Props: Daniele Ligato, Sara Pergher

Costumes: Andrea Cavalletto

Producers: Francesca Andreoli, Carole Baraton, Pauline Boucheny Pinon, Jacques-Henri Bronckart, Maura Delpero, Santiago Fondevila, Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli, Tatjana Kozar

Production country: Italy, France, Belgium

Language: italian

Year of production: 2024

Genre: tragedy

Duration: 119΄

For more information on the casting and technical characteristics see here.

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