Posted: Fri., Apr. 6, 2001 All The Knowledge In The World Tutta La Conoscenza Del Mondo (Italy)
By David STRATTON
Twenty-nine-year-old director Eros Puglielli displays a precocious but uneven talent in "All the Knowledge in the World," his first cinema feature following a series of well-regarded video clips and video-films. While demonstrating considerable skills as a filmmaker, Puglielli is on less sure ground with a screenplay that attempts to straddle several genres, to ultimately diminishing returns. Fests may want to spotlight this up and comer, but commercial chances appear to be slender. Pic starts with a bang when Marco (Marco Bonini), a young would-be rocker, attempts to rescue Claudio (Claudio Guain), a wheelchair bound man who gets stuck in the middle of a railway track as a nonstop express approaches. Staging, filming and editing of this sequence is masterly, and gets the film off to a powerful start. Just as it seems both men are doomed to die, the hurtling train is stopped by a mysterious force in the shape of a luminous white creature, perhaps an alien, or maybe an angel.
Whatever caused their salvation, both Marco and Claudio are profoundly affected by the apparent miracle. The authorities won't believe Marco's story, and Claudio pretends he's forgotten what happened. But their lives are changed forever.
Claudio goes to live with his niece, Giovanna (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), and secretly -- and obsessively -- begins collecting material on sightings of aliens.
Giovanna, meanwhile, is besotted with self-important philosophy professor (Giorgio Albertazzi). They begin an apparently chaste relationship, which culminates in an "Eyes Wide Shut"-like sequence in which the prof turns out to be a member of a cult practicing some kind of witchcraft.
Marco becomes a top-of-the-chart rock singer but still seeks an answer to the miracle he witnessed. Inevitably Marco and Giovanna find one another.
Puglielli claims that this often strange and uneven film was made to pose basic questions about the very meaning of life, but it's much less profound than that. Yet even if it doesn't really hang together, much of the film intrigues and, occasionally, dazzles.
The cast is excellent, with Mezzogiorno a radiant heroine and Bonini, who has the looks of a younger Antonio Banderas, a rugged hero. Production values are very slick in every department, and the music is lively.
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117797747.html? categoryid=31&cs=1&query=maRCO+BONINI
By David STRATTON
Twenty-nine-year-old director Eros Puglielli displays a precocious but uneven talent in "All the Knowledge in the World," his first cinema feature following a series of well-regarded video clips and video-films. While demonstrating considerable skills as a filmmaker, Puglielli is on less sure ground with a screenplay that attempts to straddle several genres, to ultimately diminishing returns. Fests may want to spotlight this up and comer, but commercial chances appear to be slender. Pic starts with a bang when Marco (Marco Bonini), a young would-be rocker, attempts to rescue Claudio (Claudio Guain), a wheelchair bound man who gets stuck in the middle of a railway track as a nonstop express approaches. Staging, filming and editing of this sequence is masterly, and gets the film off to a powerful start. Just as it seems both men are doomed to die, the hurtling train is stopped by a mysterious force in the shape of a luminous white creature, perhaps an alien, or maybe an angel.
Whatever caused their salvation, both Marco and Claudio are profoundly affected by the apparent miracle. The authorities won't believe Marco's story, and Claudio pretends he's forgotten what happened. But their lives are changed forever.
Claudio goes to live with his niece, Giovanna (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), and secretly -- and obsessively -- begins collecting material on sightings of aliens.
Giovanna, meanwhile, is besotted with self-important philosophy professor (Giorgio Albertazzi). They begin an apparently chaste relationship, which culminates in an "Eyes Wide Shut"-like sequence in which the prof turns out to be a member of a cult practicing some kind of witchcraft.
Marco becomes a top-of-the-chart rock singer but still seeks an answer to the miracle he witnessed. Inevitably Marco and Giovanna find one another.
Puglielli claims that this often strange and uneven film was made to pose basic questions about the very meaning of life, but it's much less profound than that. Yet even if it doesn't really hang together, much of the film intrigues and, occasionally, dazzles.
The cast is excellent, with Mezzogiorno a radiant heroine and Bonini, who has the looks of a younger Antonio Banderas, a rugged hero. Production values are very slick in every department, and the music is lively.
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117797747.html? categoryid=31&cs=1&query=maRCO+BONINI