L'INNOCENTE: Beautiful Blu-ray transfer highlights Luchino Visconti's final film

Said to have been filmed while its director was wheelchair-bound and making its debut at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival just two days before he died, L'INNOCENTE, the final movie from Luchino Visconti, arrives on Blu-ray in a lovely transfer that offers up quite an array of splendors that those of us who loved the filmmaker's work will certainly appreciate.

Gorgeous interiors, eye-popping in their sumptuous detail, compete with soulful performances from the three beautiful actors in leading roles, while lushly-shot, highly sensual sex scenes plus some full-frontal, male and female nudity keep the eyes from ever being tempted to look away from the Panavision-size screen.

With an intelligent screenplay by Visconti (shown at left) and two of his usual collaborator -- Suso Cecchi D'Amico and Enrico Medioli -- adapted from the novel by Gabriele D'Annuzio, the movie tackles some of this filmmaker's favorite themes, from love, trust, jealousy and betrayal to the entitlement of the elite and the uses/abuses of guilt.

The plot involves an atypically randy and straying husband (he's honest with his wife about his affairs), played by Giancarlo Giannini (below, at the height of his sexual attraction and prowess), his wife (Laura Antonelli, an Italian beauty also at the height of her own), and in an odd casting choice that pays off ten-fold, Jennifer O'Neill in the role of hubby's beautiful, wealthy, take-no-prisoners mistress.

When that wife (below) appears to have taken a lover of her own, the husband's world is turned upside down -- never more so than when said lover, after showering at the fencing club in which the husband is a member, steps out of the shower in front of that husband with his ample cock displayed, as if to ask, "Can you top this, buddy?" And, yes, for hubby, it's all downhill from there.

Tropical sickness, pregnancy, parentage and more enter into things but both Visconti and D'Annuzio are clearly more interested in the philosophical aspects of the story than they are in the sometimes heavily melodramatic events on view. This helps steady the movie from going overboard. As awful as circumstances get (do they ever!), Visconti's patience, cool calm and eye for beauty keep it all on course.

As fine as is each of the performances, however, the major surprise is Ms O'Neill (at left). This is by far the best performance TrustMovies has seen from this actress.

Yes, her Italian has been dubbed (and very well) but her keen intelligence, as well as an unusual power and strength, come through in fine fashion.

Perhaps this shows what a smart and talented filmmaker like Visconti could bring out of an actress, or maybe simply what the actress herself is capable of that no director/writer had yet tapped into near fully enough.

As usual, with the Blu-rays from Film Movement, bonus material is on the slim side, but there is a very nice video essay, Reframing L'Innocente by Ivo Blom that shows the amazing detail and research Visconti demanded regarding the film's sets, costumes and production design, as well as a 16-page booklet of photos and an essay from author Dan Callahan.

From Film Movement Classics, in Italian with English subtitles and running 129 minutes, L'Innocente hit the street last week -- on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital -- for purchase and/or rental.

Art, deliciously animated, in Milorad Krstic's delightful RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR

What a treat for art aficionados is the new movie from Hungarian animator Milorad Krstic! With animation that nods to a plethora of art "greats" (or supposed greats: Warhol's Double Elvis figures into things here), RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR offers up everything from Velásquez to Botticelli, Caravaggio to Renoir, and all looking like they were somehow re-conceived by a certain guy named Picasso.

Animated by Mr. Krstic (shown at left) with the kind of super style you might call cubism squared (or is it squarism cubed?), I can't immediately think of any other animated movie in which I've enjoyed the actual animation more than this one (it makes this year's Oscar winner, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse look every bit as paltry as it truly is). Downright gorgeous, and just as amusing and fun, this 94-minute movie is an absolute knockout.

And if the movie's content doesn't quite live up to its style, when that style is so far above all else that it's off the chart, are we going to complain?

The story here takes in everything from family, parenting and parentage to art, art theft and performance art and handles it all with sublime wit, charm, subtlety and speed.

And for those who demand action, car chases and even murder, hey -- they're here, too. Along with Haydn and Mozart.

TrustMovies was having so much fun watching this film that he had to give up taking his usual notes and simply stay glued to the screen, for fear of missing something else that was special.

If you know and love fine art -- both the older and newer varieties -- I can't imagine your not heading straight out for the theater nearest you. If you're not an art fan, then at least half the film will be lost on you, but what's left, animation-wise, might still be enough to ring your bell. (Mine rang so often and loudly I'm surprised I haven't gone deaf.) In addition to the many art references, there are plenty of nods to movies and other touchstones of culture, as well.

The film has two protagonists, one a crack psychologist suffering from terrible nightmares who is soon to become an art thief, the other an ace detective with a missing-father issue. Supporting characters include a group of thieves who happen to be patients of our psychologist/thief (he's teaching them how art can save their sanity and life).

That's all you need to know. Now find a theater near you, sit back and let you eyes widen and your mouth drop open. From Sony Pictures Classics, Ruben Brandt, Collector opened on our uber-cultural coasts a couple of weeks back and will hit South Florida (in Fort Lauderdale at The Classic Gateway, and in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theaters and Regal Shadowood) and elsewhere across the country this Friday, March 8. Wherever you live, simply click here and then click on View Theaters at the bottom of the screen to find those nearest you.

Mothering gets a look-see in Laura Bispuri's Sardinia-set drama, DAUGHTER OF MINE

A young daughter's interest in and need for her real mother versus the parents who have raised her since birth is the subject of DAUGHTER OF MINE, a new Italian film by Laura Bispuri, her second full-length feature, following the much-better movie from 2015, Sworn Virgin. Set in the Sardinian countryside and featuring a set of characters, most of whom seem to be playing with what we might term as "less than a full deck," the movie tells the tale of ten-year-old Vittoria, who belatedly realizes during the course of the film that the town prostitute and drunk, Angelica (note the irony here), played by the great Alba Rohrwacher, is her actual birth mother, rather than the much more angelic and saintly Tina (Valeria Golino) who, along with her kindly and much more intelligent husband, has raised little Vittoria since her birth.

The two mothers seem to share a deep and longstanding friendship, though only Tina understands or cares about what raising a child actually entails. When Angelica suddenly decides that she wants to be more involved in her daughter's life, the two women seem set on a collision course.

This ought to provide more than enough drama and incident to pack a 97-minute movie, but Ms Bispuri (shown at left), who directs and also co-wrote (with Francesca Manieri, from a memoir by A.M. Homes) appears to have been content to give her two mothers little more than one characteristic each -- Angelica is drunk/slutty, while Tina is frightened/grieving -- and then simply runs with that. Little Vittoria (played by talented newcomer Sara Casu, shown at left, above and below) fortunately offers more interesting sides: She's spunky, inquisitive, and ready to learn.

Because the two moms are played by two of Italy's finest actresses, these roles are given more than the mostly one-note character the screenplay offers. Ms Rohrwacher (above, right), in my estimation Italy's finest living actress -- as versatile and committed as you could want -- brings as much shading to her performance as possible, while Ms Golino (at left, below) does the same, yet neither is enough to goose this eventually rather mawkish story to any higher level.

Further, the characters seem particularly dim: Angelica even stupidly, maybe drunkenly endangers her daughter's life, while Tina simply dithers and dithers, even as her husband reminds her more than once about the fact that he and his wife have never had and do not now have any actual legal right to their daughter. The final scene, in which our young girl leads these two utter dummies along behind her, makes some humorous if ironic sense, but it is not likely to engender much emotion, I fear, except in those viewers who've put their brain in check before watching.

The supporting cast is mostly made up of the town's menfolk, the younger of whom buy Angelica a drink in return for a quick fuck or blow job, along with one older man (the always fun-to-watch Udo Kier) who wants to buy the birth mom's horses -- perhaps for the glue factory, so she refuses to sell.

From Strand Releasing, the movie opened in New York City (at the Quad Cinema) and in Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Royal) yesterday, and will expand its run to a few other theaters over the weeks to come. Click here and then click on Screenings to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Home video release for Eisha Marjara's transgender parenting rom-com, VENUS

The sudden announcement to a movie character -- generally a rom-com hero -- that he has an offspring he never knew existed is not exactly a new or novel plot device. When that character is a male in the midst of transgendering to a female, however, this probably constitutes the breaking of some new ground. So it is in the Canadian movie VENUS, which arrives via writer/director Eisha Marjara, shown below.

The first question you're likely to be confronted with by the film is this: Can a movie be simultaneously pretty enjoyable yet not very good? 

Venus answers this in a mostly positive vein. It's glossy, almost totally unbelievable, yet well-acted enough to just about slide by your (probably) many objections. This is due in large part of the performance of the young actor Jamie Mayers (below), who plays Ralph, the 14-year-old boy who has only just discovered his birth-parent dad.

As written, this character is not only too good to be true, but to be believed, as well. Yet Mr. Mayers is so charming, full of life and good will, that he manages to seduce you into coming along on this somewhat bumpy ride.

The young performer uses his wide-eyed face, adept body and high spirits to charm the viewer as much as he does the film's other characters,

who include his dad (the oddly cast actor, Debargo Sanyal, above and below, proves not particularly convincing),

his grandparents (the much better Gordon Warnecke and Zena Darawalla, below, left and right respectively),

and dad's lover (the very hot Pierre-Yves Cardinal , shown below, left). In fact, the two characters who seems least likely to fall for Ralph's charms are his mom (Amber Goldfarb, in the penultimate photo below) and his stepdad. This makes some sense, as these two are the ones who must deal with the kid, day in and day out.

The movie is both lively and bouncy, as it skirts along the surface of just about every thing and every theme it touches. Its refusal to go any deeper than the minimum requirements of GLBT rom-and-dram-coms, is best shown at the point at which Ralph's dad says to his son, "I think we need to have a talk." And then, instead of letting us see and hear that very important talk, the filmmaker simply cuts to some time afterward, depriving us of a scene in which both character and situation might have deepened.

But depth is certainly not what Ms Marjara is going for. Instead, we get the usual -- which is, as usual, nicely entertaining and often quite well-acted. If you'll settle for that, you will probably have an enjoyable time with Venus.

From Wolfe Video, the movie -- in English and running 95 minutes -- hits the street on DVD and VOD this coming Tuesday, September 4, for purchase and (I would hope) rental.

Nepal's culture, history and current politics blend in Deepak Rauniyar's moving WHITE SUN

So what do you know about the country of Nepal? The adult son of a good friend of mine (who produced an Oscar-nominated short some years back) has spent a lot of time there and loves the place, yet other than realizing that Nepal borders on India to the south and the now-China-conquered state of Tibet to the north, TrustMovies knew little else, except that its capital is Kathmandu and the world's highest mountain -- Everest -- is located therein. After viewing the new film WHITE SUN, I suspect that you will, as did I, want to know more about this fascinating and, from the looks of it, quite beautiful Himalayan country.

As written and directed by Nepalese filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar (shown at left), this gentle, humorous and finally surprisingly moving film explores family life and current politics, even as it surveys both tradition and the changes that have now come to this little country. While these changes have resulted in war, death and families seemingly as divided as were some of ours here in the USA during the Civil War, the movie itself -- because it takes place post-war, as divisions are being healed and accommodations made to politics and modernity -- proves much quieter and concerned more with healing than with that earlier fracturing.

The tale told here is beautifully conceived and executed by Mr. Rauniyar to both encompass and lay bare his theme of monarchy vs Maoist, tradition vs change. Further, the details he offers enable us to follow and appreciate most of the story, even if some of the ironies and subtleties are undoubtedly lost on us in the process.

The sudden death of the father of a family reunites those long separated by politics and familial divisions, even as this event offers a terrifically cogent means to bring the idea of progress and what this means to the forefront. The filmmaker does not, so far as I could tell, come down hard on either side of the debate. Rather he finds the irony and humor under the surface, allowing these to bubble up in ways quite charming and surprising.

In addition to its main theme, the film also delivers nods to paternity -- real, imagined and desired -- and feminism along the way. Rauniyar has corralled a fine cast that delivers excellent performances throughout. Granted there is occasional overplayed exposition, as when a villager in the funeral procession explains to his friends (but really to us) things about his family that those villagers would clearly already know. But this is minor when compared to this writer/director's accomplishments in demonstrating both the pros and cons embedded in warring ideologies.

Many of the adults here may be overly set in their ways, but it is the children, finally, who command the filmmaker's (and our own) respect and caring, and White Sun's finale seems both unexpected yet exactly right and wonderfully just.  The movie will be this year's submission from Nepal for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. I should think that our Academy will take note and perhaps shortlist the movie, if not nominate it outright.

From KimStim Films, the movie, which opened in New York City earlier this month to very good reviews, hits Los Angeles this Friday, September 29, opening at Laemmle's Music Hall 3. Click here and then scroll down and click on PLAY DATES to view all past and future cities and theaters at which the film will screen. (I would think we'll also have an eventual VOD/DVD release.)

Ibsen's The Wild Duck gets a modern-day update via Simon Stone's THE DAUGHTER

The Wild Duck is among Henrik Ibsen's trickier plays. I've never seen a fully realized, thoroughly believable production of it, either on stage or at the movies. As I recall, the German/Austrian film from 1976, starring Bruno Ganz and Jean Seberg (her final screen performance) comes as close as any. Now we have a modern-day version of the story, adapted and directed by Australian theater director Simon Stone (shown below), which is credited as "inspired by" the Ibsen play and said to be based upon Stone's earlier theater adaptation, which I have not seen.

I have seen THE DAUGHTER -- Stone's filmed version of his adaptation -- and it is a terrible disappointment. It takes everything that is most melodramatic about The Wild Duck and runs with it. To disaster. (Ibsen always included plenty of melodramatic elements in his work, but his smart, thorough, explorative dialog was able to rise above sheer melodrama.)

Further, the filmmaker has seen fit to telescope the play pretty drastically, which highlights the melodrama even further. And he has loaded some of his characters with additional baggage, particularly that titular "daughter" (who is older here and has a problemed boyfriend in tow), perhaps to make what happens seem more understandable/palatable. This, too, simply stacks the melodramatic deck more heavily.

The tale told is of two families joined by seeming friendship and employment but who share a much heavier-duty bond. Which, of course, will be revealed in due course. Rich guy (Geoffrey Rush, above) heads one crew, poor guy (Sam Neill) the other.

When rich guy's estranged son (Paul Schneider, above) pays a visit, ostensibly to celebrate his dad's upcoming wedding, that son gloms on to a family secret (and gloms far too easily, even for melodrama), after which a bubble of trouble blooms and bursts.

Now, Rush, Neill and Schneider are fine actors. So, too, are the women in the film -- Odessa Young (below) as that daughter, Miranda Otto (above) as her mom, and Anna Torv as Rush's about-to-be bride -- but all they have to work with here is a screenplay full of "feelings," since Stone has seen fit to remove, change or streamline Ibsen's most telling dialog into fast-food fodder.

The film's best performance comes from Ewen Leslie, shown below, left, as Otto's husband and that daughter's would-be father. Mr. Leslie gets the most to do, say and (of course) feel, and he is quite good -- until the finale, at which point this sodden melodrama eats him alive, too.

The-big-family-secret genre is such a tricky thing to carry off that it is probably best left to soap opera and the like, in which we expect the worst but also expect it to be a lot of fun. All that occurs (and is made so very much of) in The Daughter begins to register as far too close to camp. This sort of thing shouldn't happen to Ibsen, nor even to, well, a duck.

From Australia and running a thankfully short 96 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, January 27, in New York City at the Cinema Village and the following Friday, February 3, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal.

Eugène Green is back -- with his oddball, beautiful, quasi-Biblical THE SON OF JOSEPH

I've seen only two of the films of American-born French filmmaker Eugène Green -- 2014's La Sapienza and his newest work, THE SON OF JOSEPH -- but these are enough to have earned M. Green, pictured below, a place in TrustMovies' canon: that of a a very special and specialized filmmaker whose work will have limited appeal. Less so even than, say, Eric Rohmer. But for those to whom it will appeal, his movies should have enormous resonance.

The Wikipedia listing for this filmmaker is short and concise, explaining that he is noted for "training a generation of young actors in the revival of French baroque theatre technique and declamation."

When I read this, it suddenly hit me like a blast of fresh air. This is why watching and listening to Green's movies puts me so in mind of classical French playwrights like Racine and Marivaux -- yet in a modern-day context. His characters declaim, all right. But they do this so quietly and well that they almost (but not quite) convince us of their "reality." Yet reality is not the primary thing that M. Green is going for, I suspect. He is happy to attempt something more "theatrical" and perhaps old-fashioned that will nonetheless force us to stop, question, and consider things anew. And he manages this -- in spades. But at a price that simply rules out anything like a mainstream audience. Even the arthouse crowd may champ at the bit. So be it. The filmmaker goes his own way but achieves just what he wants.

Green's style combines elegance and formality with theatricality and grace. I can't think of anyone else who manages all this in anything like the same way. He has a keen interest in architecture, beauty and formal gardens; in philosophy, religion and in doing the right thing for the right reason. He's a moralist, and he uses his arsenal to help us consider being moral, too.

While La Sapienza dealt with love from a more moral/psychological viewpoint, The Son of Joseph deals with it from a moral/religious one. Faux Biblical scenes abound -- from Abraham's would-be sacrifice of Isaac (here reversed so that it is the son who very nearly kills the father) to Mary and Joseph's journey via ass. One lengthy scene takes place in a glorious church (above) where a poem is read and a song sung.

The story told is of a mother-son family in which the father (more odd-but-on-the-nose work by Mathieu Amalric) never took part past the impregnation stage. That son (a fresh and compelling performance by Victor Ezenfis, below, right), determined to learn who that father is, rejects a school friend's request that he help provide semen for an on-line business venture to go instead on his search for dad. Fathering, it seems, must result in more than mere sperm donation.

Finding his father results in also discovering a faux father (an exceptional job from Fabrizio Rongione, above, left, of La Sapienza and Two Days, One Night), the brother of the real father who proves to be everything that dad is not. The mother here is given a beautifully rounded, graceful character by Natacha Régnier (below). Green's cast proves more than capable of handling the declamation well, while the filmmaker's use of closeup brings to fine life the important moments we need to experience.

Duality is heavily present in both "Sapienza" and "Joseph," and the manner in which Green plays with this is often charming and funny. Coupled to the beauty and elegance that the filmmaker finds both indoors and out, all this makes for a pretty heady experience for those so inclined. (That's M. Green, below, left, playing a helpful hotel concierge.)

The Son of Joseph, distributed in the USA by Kino Lorber, opens this Friday, January 13, at The Film Society of Lincoln Center's Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. Elsewhere? Yes, the film is so far booked in another six cities over the weeks to come. Click here and scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.