Drama directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, starring Jacopo Olmo Antinori and Tea Falco. Having told his mother he's going on a school trip for the weekend, a teenage boy craving solitude instead plans to spend it in the basement of their apartment building. But his plans go awry when his older half-sister turns up with problems of her own.
In director Bernardo Bertolucci's rites-of-passage story, a teenage loner (Jacopo Olmi Antinori) uses the excuse of a class skiing trip to fool his overprotective mum into thinking he's away, when in fact he is holing up in the basement of their apartment building. However, the surprise arrival of his half-sister (Tea Falco), seeking sanctuary for reasons of her own, soon changes his perspective. Much more modest than his past glories like multi-Oscar winner The Last Emperor, Bertolucci's film unfolds as a chamber piece, partly as a response to health problems that have confined the veteran Italian film-maker to a wheelchair. Nevertheless, it works well on its own terms, as the writing and performances build our understanding of why these privileged kids should feel so ill at ease. Also, brilliant use of David Bowie's Space Oddity (both the original and Mogol's fervent Italian adaptation) show that Bertolucci's insight and dramatic flair are still intact, but operating on a more intimate scale.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Lorenzo | Jacopo Olmo Antinori |
| Olivia | Tea Falco |
| Arianna | Sonia Bergamasco |
| Grandmother | Veronica Lazar |
| Psychologist | Pippo Delbono |
| Ferdinando | Tommaso Ragno |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Bernardo Bertolucci |
