CIFF 38 Review: Salvo
Someone asked me how I know what movies to pick when I go to the Cleveland International Film Festival. The answer is that I read through the large program book, check all the movies that sound interesting, cross-link that list against my schedule, and buy tickets where my availability and my interest coincide. This is essentially the same system I use for the Cleveland Cinematheque, and it has served me well over the years.
One difference between the two film guides is that the Cinematheque schedule has been written by the same two people for more than twenty years. After 12 years as a member with a new schedule six times a year, I know what they like and don't like in movies, and from reading the descriptions I can usually accurately determine what I will like and will not like, much in the same way that I had read so many of Roger Ebert's reviews that I can tell with some accuracy if I'll like the film based on what he thought about it. Sometimes I see something I hate at the Cinematheque, but rarely am I bored and usually I enjoy myself. By comparison, the CIFF guide comes out once a year, and I suspect that the many, many program descriptions are written by a changing cast of characters. My suspicion is that I would not have seen this movie if had been written up in the Cinematheque schedule, but it seemed interesting enough when I read the CIFF guide. Oops.
Salvo
So let's start with the positive: Whether intentionally or not, Salvo seems to adhere to the most obvious of the Dogme 95 rules. In particular, everything is naturally lit and there is no music aside from that which the characters can hear. I don't feel these choices don't really help the film (in particular, most every shot in the film is very, very dark), but they happened. Another stylistic choice is the minimalistic dialog. It's in Italian, but there are so few words spoken that I might well not have realized that was in Italian if I'd had to figure it out from listening to the dialog. Heck, there will probably be more words in this post.
The titular character is a mobster in Italy. When someone tries to put a hit on his boss he successfully foils it and tracks down and kills the rival who ordered the hit. Unfortunately, the rival's sister witnesses the killing, but when Salvo realizes that she is blind and could not 'see' the crime, he kidnaps her instead of killing her for reasons that are never fully explained. She, of course, is not happy about this, especially when he stashes her in a warehouse and leave her there for a few days while he reports back to his boss. Then she realizes that every time he touches her, some of her vision is restored, which as you can imagine changes her behavior. Unfortunately, Salvo told his boss that he'd killed her, and when his boss finds out he didn't, Salvo has to decide if he is going to obey his boss or protect her.
Ok, so that's what happened. The problem is that I'm not sure I would have figured out a lot of that if I hadn't read the description in the CIFF Guide. This is a problem, to say the least. I got that she was regaining her vision, but I didn't realize his touch was the trigger. Add in the exceedingly slow pace of the film, the extremely dark lighting, and the utter quiet, and I suspect that a lot of the audience had trouble staying awake. I fought through it, barely, but it took conscious effort. For all of these reasons, I rated this film 'POOR'. It's still not the worst film I've seen at the CIFF though. That would probably be the incredibly tediously boring Correction back in 2007. Only the Brave and Filmphobia are strong contenders as well.
One difference between the two film guides is that the Cinematheque schedule has been written by the same two people for more than twenty years. After 12 years as a member with a new schedule six times a year, I know what they like and don't like in movies, and from reading the descriptions I can usually accurately determine what I will like and will not like, much in the same way that I had read so many of Roger Ebert's reviews that I can tell with some accuracy if I'll like the film based on what he thought about it. Sometimes I see something I hate at the Cinematheque, but rarely am I bored and usually I enjoy myself. By comparison, the CIFF guide comes out once a year, and I suspect that the many, many program descriptions are written by a changing cast of characters. My suspicion is that I would not have seen this movie if had been written up in the Cinematheque schedule, but it seemed interesting enough when I read the CIFF guide. Oops.
Salvo
So let's start with the positive: Whether intentionally or not, Salvo seems to adhere to the most obvious of the Dogme 95 rules. In particular, everything is naturally lit and there is no music aside from that which the characters can hear. I don't feel these choices don't really help the film (in particular, most every shot in the film is very, very dark), but they happened. Another stylistic choice is the minimalistic dialog. It's in Italian, but there are so few words spoken that I might well not have realized that was in Italian if I'd had to figure it out from listening to the dialog. Heck, there will probably be more words in this post.
The titular character is a mobster in Italy. When someone tries to put a hit on his boss he successfully foils it and tracks down and kills the rival who ordered the hit. Unfortunately, the rival's sister witnesses the killing, but when Salvo realizes that she is blind and could not 'see' the crime, he kidnaps her instead of killing her for reasons that are never fully explained. She, of course, is not happy about this, especially when he stashes her in a warehouse and leave her there for a few days while he reports back to his boss. Then she realizes that every time he touches her, some of her vision is restored, which as you can imagine changes her behavior. Unfortunately, Salvo told his boss that he'd killed her, and when his boss finds out he didn't, Salvo has to decide if he is going to obey his boss or protect her.
Ok, so that's what happened. The problem is that I'm not sure I would have figured out a lot of that if I hadn't read the description in the CIFF Guide. This is a problem, to say the least. I got that she was regaining her vision, but I didn't realize his touch was the trigger. Add in the exceedingly slow pace of the film, the extremely dark lighting, and the utter quiet, and I suspect that a lot of the audience had trouble staying awake. I fought through it, barely, but it took conscious effort. For all of these reasons, I rated this film 'POOR'. It's still not the worst film I've seen at the CIFF though. That would probably be the incredibly tediously boring Correction back in 2007. Only the Brave and Filmphobia are strong contenders as well.