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# 78 APRIL 18 , 2016
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ITALIAN CINEMA:
Italy’s superhero,
Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot
By Edoardo Peretti
Over the past two decades one of the most often
accusations addressed to
Italian cinema was that of
being provincial, self-referential and not exportable
abroad; among other causes, there was also the right criticism that ours was
a little diverse cinema,
almost never addressing
"genres" different from
the usual comedy. In recent years this trend is
changing: a new generation of writers and directors is growing, more attentive to the genera, also
with the goal of exporting
our cinema.
The most important example is having a big success in these weeks. “Lo
chiamavano Jeeg Robot”
(They used to call him
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Jeeg Robot), first feature
film by Gabriele Mainetti. The movie, released in
theaters about a month
ago, has had a very big
success both from the public and critics, as evidenced by the 16 nominations
for the David di Donatello
Awards, the "Oscars" of
Italian cinema.
“Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot” (Jeeg Robot was a
Japanese cartoon broadcasted in Italy back in the
70s) is a superhero movie,
which harks back to the
typical pattern of overseas films - in particular the
ones of Marvel - but managing to be, at the same
time, typically Italian. Or
rather, typically Roman,
as the story, tells about
a typical boy (played by
Claudio Santamaria) from
a typical Roman neighborhood who, evading
police, falls into a container of radioactive material
buried in the Tiber river,
gaining superpowers. Realizing his new reality, initially he uses it for his own
purposes: for example, in
one of the most famous
sequences, he eradicate
an ATM from a wall and takes it home.
In the meantime, however, Rome is plagued by
a series of bombs and a
petty criminal with delusions of greatness, even
a bit crazy: the "Gypsy",
starring a terrific Luca Marinelli, who thus confirms
being maybe the most
promising and talented
actor of his generation.