The Italian entry in the 1996 foreign-language Academy Award competition, the political drama "My Generation" (La Mia Generazione) is set during one long day in 1983 and concentrates on a quartet of characters, one of whom is a leftist terrorist serving a 30-year prison term.
Wilma Labate's second feature recently showed at the AFI and Palm Springs film festivals. Its commercial prospects on the domestic front are unpromising given the film's lack of major stars and challenging but often unengaging agenda.
Despite a realistic approach and good performances from leads Silvio Orlando and Claudio Amendola, "My Generation" moves at too slow a pace and fails overall to make the cagey characters as fascinating as they could be.
A dispirited subversive (Amendola) is suddenly given a "month's leave" from prison to see his girlfriend. A cheerful, seemingly sympathetic captain (Orlando) rides with the prisoner and the film becomes the story of their journey, and several interruptions, such as a prison riot and a few tense moments with an anti-terrorist mob bent on revenge.
Francesca Neri, employing many forlorn looks and quizzical expressions reminiscent of Michelle Pfeiffer, has the impossible task of playing the girlfriend. She's seen in several sequences en route to the rendezvous with her old flame, but there's no real effort to get inside her head.
From Alessandro Pesci's stark cinematography to Nicola Piovani's overbearingly somber score, "My Generation" does succeed in showing the courageousness and genuine shame of the terrorist, while the captain believably represents an Italy that is "rotten."
Indeed, the gloomy atmosphere of the film evokes the era, but "My Generation" is frustratingly bereft of fireworks, emotional or otherwise. Deceptive acts of the captain almost crack Amendola's character, but the latter sticks to his principles and maintains loyalty to old comrades for a heavy price.
MY GENERATION
A Compact production
in collaboration with Rai Radiotelevisioner Italiana
and Dania Film
Presented by Maurizio Tini
Director:Wilma Labate
Producer:Maurizio Tini
Writers:Wilma Labate, Paolo Lapponi, Andrea Leoni, Sandro Petraglia
Director of photography:Alessandro Pesci
Art director:Marta Maffucci
Editor:Enzo Meniconi
Costume designer:Metella Raboni
Music:Nicola Piovani
Color/stereo
Cast:
Captain:Silvio Orlando
Braccio:Claudio Amendola
Giulia:Francesca Neri
Concilio:Vincenzo Peluso
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Wilma Labate's second feature recently showed at the AFI and Palm Springs film festivals. Its commercial prospects on the domestic front are unpromising given the film's lack of major stars and challenging but often unengaging agenda.
Despite a realistic approach and good performances from leads Silvio Orlando and Claudio Amendola, "My Generation" moves at too slow a pace and fails overall to make the cagey characters as fascinating as they could be.
A dispirited subversive (Amendola) is suddenly given a "month's leave" from prison to see his girlfriend. A cheerful, seemingly sympathetic captain (Orlando) rides with the prisoner and the film becomes the story of their journey, and several interruptions, such as a prison riot and a few tense moments with an anti-terrorist mob bent on revenge.
Francesca Neri, employing many forlorn looks and quizzical expressions reminiscent of Michelle Pfeiffer, has the impossible task of playing the girlfriend. She's seen in several sequences en route to the rendezvous with her old flame, but there's no real effort to get inside her head.
From Alessandro Pesci's stark cinematography to Nicola Piovani's overbearingly somber score, "My Generation" does succeed in showing the courageousness and genuine shame of the terrorist, while the captain believably represents an Italy that is "rotten."
Indeed, the gloomy atmosphere of the film evokes the era, but "My Generation" is frustratingly bereft of fireworks, emotional or otherwise. Deceptive acts of the captain almost crack Amendola's character, but the latter sticks to his principles and maintains loyalty to old comrades for a heavy price.
MY GENERATION
A Compact production
in collaboration with Rai Radiotelevisioner Italiana
and Dania Film
Presented by Maurizio Tini
Director:Wilma Labate
Producer:Maurizio Tini
Writers:Wilma Labate, Paolo Lapponi, Andrea Leoni, Sandro Petraglia
Director of photography:Alessandro Pesci
Art director:Marta Maffucci
Editor:Enzo Meniconi
Costume designer:Metella Raboni
Music:Nicola Piovani
Color/stereo
Cast:
Captain:Silvio Orlando
Braccio:Claudio Amendola
Giulia:Francesca Neri
Concilio:Vincenzo Peluso
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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