Filippo Timi and Sebastiano Mauri's FAIRYTALE hits digital and DVD here in the USA

If you tend to be a sucker for very strange cinema (as am I), you probably won't find an odder example than FAIRYTALE (Favola), the Italian movie from 2017 based on the popular stage play by actor and sometimes writer Filippo Timi, one of my favorite performers, whom we get to see far too seldom here in the USA. TrustMovies interviewed Signore Timi back in 2010, when he played the role of Mussolini in Marco Bellocchio's Vincere. Versatile in the extreme, he sometimes proves nearly unrecognizable from movie to movie.

In the case of Fairytale, Timi (above, left) has co-written the screenplay (with the film's director, Sebastiano Mauri, above, right) as well as essaying the leading role of Mrs. Fairytale, an American housewife in the 1950s who is, pretty much unbeknownst (initially, even to herself), going through a process of heavy-duty self-discovery. On one level, this involves everything from mere temptation to adultery and murder, on yet another, it embraces cross-dressing, transgender, homosexuality, heterosexuality, pansexuality, depression and (societal-induced) mental illness.

As the film opens, our heroine (above) is flitting around her very 1950s home (as envisioned by Italians of the 21st Century), and all by themselves, the costumes, set and production design are reason enough to sit through this gloriously cockeyed movie. So is the tiny taxidermy-mounted poodle, Lady, who begins this bizarre concoction (in animated form) and then stays with us throughout, as some weird kind of security blanket for our thoroughly addled homemaker.

In addition to the eye-popping decor, we also get a dose of just about all your could ask from a film about America in the 50s: Doris Day, UFOs, straying husbands, unfaithful wives, the mambo and Douglas Sirk/Ross Hunter-inspired melodrama. As an encyclopedia of movie knowledge and references, we get quite a lot from Fairytale, too, including Mildred Pierce (below) and All About Eve (further below).

Timi is pretty much the whole show and he is, as always, exraordinary, but very good support is provided by Lucia Mascino (above and at bottom) as the next-door neighbor and friend who becomes quite a bit more over time,

and by Luca Santagostino (below, playing triplet brothers in this neighborhood with flair and versatility). And although daddy issues don't seem to raise their head in the course of the film,

mommy issues certainly do, via the funny, incisive performance of Piera Degli Esposti (below), in the role of Fairytale's rather commanding mother. As lunatic as the movie is, start to finish, it's also clearly trying to persuade audiences to think longer, harder and more pointedly about gender, the roles we assign to this, and the somewhat "iffy" results we continue to get.

While the USA, France and other western countries have all made their own mark on the subject, Fairytale seems to me the very peculiar Italian version of it all.

The fact the Signore Timi, whom I have found to be -- both on screen and in person -- among the "straightest," most "male" and powerful of actors and personalities has been, according to the IMDB, married to the film's director, Signore Mauri, for the past four years would seem to indicate that he has found his own gender-bending way to deal with all this. More power to him!

From Breaking Glass Pictures and running just 90 minutes, Fairytale makes its DVD and VOD debut this coming Tuesday, May 12 -- for purchase and/or rental. It's over-the-top and then some, but if you're looking for an escape from the world of our current and ever-present Covid-19 menace, this movie may very well get you the hell out of here. (It's even got an American flag for the "patriots" among us.)

Cecilia Atán & Valeria Pivato's THE DESERT BRIDE: a little movie that looms quite large

A small film that gets just about everything right, THE DESERT BRIDE (La novia del desierto) takes a sad situation -- that of a 54-year-old Chilean maid who has worked for an Argentine family for over 30 years and is now being let go, due to the sale of the house in which she has lived and labored for most of her life -- and turns it into a near-perfect character study that encompasses everything from class, gender, servitude, religious faith and more -- all accomplished, movie-wise, without beating the drums or even raising the voice.

As written and directed by Cecilia Atán and Valeria Pivato (shown above; Ms Atán is on the left) with some writing collaboration from Martín Salinas, the movie flashes back to our heroine, Teresa, and her work for that family, even as it moves gently forward on a road trip that is halted midway, taking this woman into new and quite uncharted territory.

If the film's leading lady looks familiar, that is because she should. Back in 2013 Paulina García (shown above and poster, top) made a much-deserved international breakthough as Gloria, the leading role in in Sebastián Lelio's eponymously titled film, following this up with a nice supporting turn in Ira Sachs' Little Men. In Desert Bride, Ms García lands another plum role that she makes utterly memorable via her wonderfully expressive face and her ability to give us so much of her character's inner life so quietly and with such subtlety and strength.

In the role of the older man whom she meets on her journey and who changes her route, Argentine character actor and theater director, Claudio Rissi (above), proves equally adept at creating character via small, keen strokes. The two actors work beautifully together, drawing us into their lives and their needs.

The filmmakers seem to me especially good at visual storytelling. Whether in focus or out, long-distance, middle- or close-up (the fine cinematography is by Sergio Armstrong), the landscape, with its vast distances, as well as that of the human face are both captured beautifully.

Via flashback and tiny, present-day events, character is revealed. One of the film's dearest moments comes as Teresa measures the height of the family's son, even as the depth of the relationship between these two comes clear. 

The Desert Bride may be small scale, but its accomplishment in telling its tale of life and change is a big one. And Ms García adds yet another memorable role to her impressive career.

From Strand Releasing and running a mere 77 minutes, the movie opened in New York City and Chicago two weeks ago, and in Los Angeles (at Laemmle theaters) this past Friday, May 11. This Friday. May 18, it hits several other cities, and here in South Florida it will open next Friday, May 25 --  in Miami at the Tower Theater, in Fort Lauderdale at the Savor Cinema, in Hollywood at the Cinema Paradiso, and at the Lake Worth Playhouse. To view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and then click on Screenings in the task bar midway down.