The FiFi Report 170

The Italian Directored by Andrei Kravchuk.
Genre: European tearjerker.
Subtitles: it’s in Russian.
Who: Who? Denis Moiseenko, Kolya Spiridonov, Sasha Sirotkin.
The Plot: Russia 2005 (which Looks like Dickensian London). An abandoned 6-year-old boy lives in horrid bleak orphanage. Put up for adoption. Evil mean and wicked owners of orphanage try to sell him off to Italians. He escapes. Off alone  in search to find his real mother. Kind people look after him. Mean people chase him. He is cute. The end.
Acting:“The little boy, Kolya Spiridonov, loves the camera, and the camera loves him”. Jam! Movies. “Central to the film’s success is the performance of young Kolya Spiridonov, he’s beautiful, he’s just real. It’s uncanny” David Stratton.
Photography: ‘Cinematographer Aleksandr Burov captures a land of frost-coated fields, cracked plaster walls and weed-choked railways with a photojournalist’s eye for the telling detail’
Design: Poverty struck beggars live a dark, dingy, dirty, grey bleak world.
Wardrobe:Bring back the colours of India in The Namesake!
Salon de Beaute: There is no salon de beauty. They all need crème de la Mer! Erase those fine lines! A facial and a manicure.
Botox: Bring it on! This movie is so depressing you need to drink a Botox on the rocks before (and after).
Waterproof Mascara: Apply the Model Co lash wand to curl the lashes, there is no point in wearing waterproof mascara.
Blood ’n’ Guts: Children being beaten up is never a pretty sight.
Mind drifted to shopping: from beginning to end. Smokin’ smooches: if only.
Car chases: it’s a child chase
Rename It: Oliver Twist
Best Review: "A dark fairy tale from Russia, The Italian pulls you into a richly atmospheric, persuasively inhabited world teeming with foundlings and pathos." New York Times
Best Worst Review:“ We soon grow tired of marveling at Vanya’s preternatural resourcefulness and plead for the thing to end — which it soon does in the sappiest possible way, soft-focus close-up and all.” Film Blather
See it or donate to the Prada Bag fund: Life is too short. Rush over to Prada. Press your nose against the window. And rejoice in the beautiful sight. Remember there is no despair when you buy a Prada bag (except when you get the bill)
http://www.sonyclassics.com/theitalian/