Vermiglio

 

Give this movie the Oscar!

 "The film's greatest achievement is that it manages to turn a personal family story into a universal narrative. It is the story of mothers looking at the world through the kitchen window, of babies they cannot warm with thin blankets, of women waiting for their husbands and sons who never return. It is a story of war without bombs or major conflicts, but a profound human drama in the shadow of mountains that remind us every day how small human beings are."

 

 "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"

(Cinema is the most powerful weapon)

Benito Mussolini

This article consists of two parts. In the first part, we will take a journey through Italian cinema, starting from the dictators' love for cinema, and talk about the new Realism movement that influenced the whole world (including our country). In the second part, we will take a closer look at this year's Italian Oscar nominee Vermiglio.

It may sound a bit theoretical, even academic, but since the unfortunate history of cinema has often fallen into the hands of dictators and left its fate at their mercy, we need to grasp the issue from its roots.

Niccolo Machiavelli was one of the rare people who devoted his intelligence to the service of evil... Machiavelli, one of the most important thinkers of the Italian Renaissance, is considered the founder of modern political science.

I'm not going to tell you about his life, he has had an up and down career. But he always knows how to get close to whoever is in power.

This opportunistic man, who had risen to power during the reign of the Medici family, entered the service of those who expelled the Medici as soon as they were exiled. During his term as second chancellor, he represented the republican administration against the Medici family.

In 1512, when the Medici family returned to Florence with the support of the Spanish army, the situation changed completely for Machiavelli. The Medicis purged those who had supported the old republican rule. Machiavelli was dismissed, arrested and tortured. He was interrogated on suspicion of involvement in a conspiracy against the Medicis. Finally he was sent into exile.

But he was not idle here either.

After his exile, Machiavelli tried to curry favor with the Medicis. He dedicated his famous work "The Prince" to Lorenzo de' Medici of the Medici family. This work was actually an application for a job. Machiavelli wanted to put his political experience and knowledge at the service of the Medicis.

When another coup d'état and the Medici were again exiled, this time Machiavelli was expelled by his old republican friends, who had barely approached the family.

Machiavelli's relationship with the Medicis was an example of pragmatic politics. Although he was initially against the Medicis, he tried to cooperate with them when circumstances changed. This was a practical application of the opportunist approach he advocated in his political theory.

In Machiavelli's philosophy, opportunism appears as the art of exploiting existing conditions and opportunities for political and social success.

Machiavelli's opportunism has been the guiding principle of many dictators throughout history.

According to Machiavelli, success is directly related to the ability to seize the opportunities offered by fortune (virtù). Rulers should be able to anticipate the opportunities brought by chance and use them to their advantage. In "The Prince", he explains this with the metaphor of a river: Fortune is like a river, you cannot change its flow, but by taking precautions you can protect yourself from its damages and maximize its benefits.

 Dictators love cinema and this is the greatest misfortune of the 7th Art!

Undoubtedly, one of the dictators who best internalized this logic was Benito Mussolini.

Mussolini, like other tyrants, saw everything as a tool and opportunity for his power.

The discovery of cinema and its spread in Europe was a great opportunity for Mussolini, just like Hitler.

Mussolini was a leader who recognized the impact of cinema on the masses very early on. After coming to power in 1922, he began to bring Italian cinema under direct state control. In 1924, the institution L'Unione Cinematografica Educativa (LUCE) was created. This institution was tasked with producing the propaganda films of the fascist regime and it was made compulsory for all Italian cinemas to show newsreels produced by LUCE.

In 1934, the Direzione Generale per la Cinematografia (General Directorate of Cinema) was established. This institution was created to completely control and direct the Italian film industry. Headed by Luigi Freddi, it supervised all cinema processes from script control to distribution.

The opening of Cinecittà in 1937 can be seen as the culmination of Mussolini's cinema policy. The studios opened with the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte" (Cinema is the most powerful weapon), showing the importance the fascist regime attached to the cinema industry. Mussolini's son Vittorio also took an active role in the movie industry and edited the magazine Cinema.

Let me talk a little bit about Cinecitta.

Cinecittà is a huge complex of film studios, founded in Rome in 1937 during the Mussolini era and still in existence today. Spread over 400,000 square meters, the complex houses 22 fully equipped film studios, special effects departments, costume workshops and post-production units. Its largest studio, Studio 5, was one of the largest indoor film plateaus in Europe with an area of 1,2,880 square meters.

From its foundation until the Second World War, Cinecittà primarily hosted propaganda films of the fascist regime and popular "telefoni bianchi" (white telephone) comedies. Bombed during the war, the complex was used for a time as a refugee camp. In the 1950s, Cinecittà became known as "Hollywood sul Tevere" (Hollywood on the Tiber) and hosted major Hollywood productions such as "Roman Holiday", "Ben-Hur" and "Cleopatra".

Let's take a brief look at the history of Italian cinema so that what we are about to tell will have a more solid context.

1895, after the discovery of cinema, Italy was one of the first destinations for this new art. However, Italian cinema set the bar high, starting with historical and mythological films. Big budget productions like "Cabiria" (1914) pioneered the development of cinematic techniques.

The 1920s and 30s were the period of the fascist regime. Mussolini founded the Cinecittà studios in 1937. During this period, propaganda films and light comedies called "Telefoni Bianchi" (White Phones) were produced.

And New Realism is born!

Of course, let's talk about realism first, so that the meaning of the new one makes sense. Verismo in Italian was an artistic movement that emerged in Italy in the late 19th century and developed as a special form of realism. This movement, which started primarily in literature under the leadership of Giovanni Verga, was later reflected in opera and cinema. Verismo was derived from the Italian word "vero" meaning "realism".

The first important example of Verismo in cinema emerged in 1913 with the film adaptation of Verga's "Cavalleria Rusticana". This film portrayed village life and the dramas of ordinary people with a realistic approach. The film "Sperduti nel buio" (Lost in the Dark), shot in 1914, became one of the most important examples of the movement by focusing on life in the poor neighborhoods of Naples.

Verismo cinema focused on the everyday lives of ordinary people, social problems and the harsh living conditions, especially in southern Italy. In these films, local languages and dialects were used, natural locations were preferred and melodramatic elements were deliberately avoided. The struggle of peasants, workers and the poor, social class conflicts and economic difficulties were the main themes of the films.

Verismo, which continued its influence throughout the 1920s, brought a realistic perspective to Italian cinema and laid the foundations for the later New Realism movement. Verismo's most important legacy was its demonstration of the power of cinema to reflect social realities and paved the way for the socially-oriented films that would later develop in Italian cinema.

This movement is not only an important source of cinematic narrative techniques, but also an important historical source documenting the social and cultural structure of Italian society. In short, the influence of Verismo continued to manifest itself in later periods of Italian cinema, especially in social realist films.

Italian Neorealism was an important cinematic movement that left its mark on Italian cinema between 1945 and 1952, immediately after the Second World War. Starting with Roberto Rossellini's "Rome Open City" (1945), this movement emerged from the ruins of post-war Italy. Directors preferred the streets instead of studios, ordinary people instead of professional actors, and tried to reflect the reality of everyday life as it was.

Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948), Luchino Visconti's The Earth is Shaking (1948) and Roberto Rossellini's Paisa (1946) were among the most important examples of the movement. These films tackled the poverty, unemployment, moral decline and social problems of post-war Italy with striking realism. Using techniques such as minimal editing, the use of natural light and working with amateur actors, the directors constructed a realistic cinematic language.

The New Realism movement left a deep mark on world cinema. It influenced movements such as the French New Wave, Brazilian New Cinema and the Third Cinema movement. The aesthetics and narrative techniques brought by this movement deeply influenced not only Italian cinema but also the entire world cinema and contributed to the formation of the modern cinematic language. Even today, many directors continue to be inspired by its techniques and approach.

It will be better if we look at Vermiglio, which we will analyze in depth in a moment, and which is frankly the most different and profound film I have seen in recent years, with this background information.

"The economy was deteriorating, the crisis and unemployment were increasing, dissatisfaction was spreading, and then he had the perfect idea: war!"

Now we can move on to our movie.

Ordinary lives under the snow!

"Vermiglio", Italian director Maura Delpero's second feature in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2024, is one of the most remarkable examples of minimalist period films of recent years. The film has a similar cinematic language to many of the films of our own Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the young Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, as well as Alice Rohrwacher's "Happy as Lazzaro" and Tran Anh Hung's "The Taste of Things". Like these films, "Vermiglio" treats the rituals of everyday life with an almost spiritual care, blending the passage of time with seasonal cycles.

Russian cinematographer Mikhail Krichman's camera turns natural light into a tangible character, just like in Carlos Reygadas' "Silent Light". The visual language that Krichman established with Andrey Zvyagintsev in "Leviathan" and "Loveless" takes on a more pastoral tone here. The film uses mountain landscapes reminiscent of Powell and Pressburger's "Black Narcissus", while the interior scenes work with a color palette reminiscent of the cool blues and rosy cheeks of Mary Cassatt's paintings.

The film, which is also set in the Italian provinces during the war, has traces of classic neo-realist works such as Vittorio De Sica's "Two Women" and Roberto Rossellini's "Rome, Open City", but it prefers to stay away from their dramatic intensity. Delpero's approach is more like Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia", focusing on the slow passage of time and the impact of the landscape on the characters.

Let's start with Vermiglio, who gives the movie its name.

Vermiglio is a town in the Trentino-Alto Adige region in northern Italy. It played an important role during World War I. There are still military ruins and historical artifacts from that period in the area. Vermiglio is a small, isolated and remote town in Italy, a natural wonder.

The story goes like this.

We are at the end of the second world war.

Winter... Probably the winter after Mussolini had tried to flee with his wife Rachele and his lover Clara Petacci towards the Swiss border in April of the previous year, only to be captured by Partisan forces and shot to death in the village of Dongo near Lake Como.

The story begins to change with the arrival of Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), a deserter from Sicily. The love that develops between Pietro and the teacher's eldest daughter Lucia deeply affects both family and village dynamics. The film tells the story of Italian provincial life during the war from the point of view of the female characters, while skillfully dealing with the social norms and restrictions of the period.

The movie has a tremendous visual language

The story is inspired by the director's own family history, especially the memories of his father. It focuses on the life of an extended family consisting of the village teacher Caesar (Tommaso Ragno), his wife Adele (Roberta Rovelli) and their three daughters Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), Ada (Rachele Potrich) and Flavia (Anna Thaler) and their children.

The film is also noteworthy for the way it deals with Catholic representation. From Paolo Sorrentino's "The Young Pope" to Frederick Wiseman's documentary "Monastic", the film acknowledges the aesthetic beauty of religion while questioning the underlying social structures. References to the legend of Santa Lucia deepen the stories of the female characters in particular, which are woven with themes of sacrifice and acceptance.

Delpero's directorial approach is reminiscent of Robert Bresson's minimalist aesthetic. In particular, the economical manner in which he manages his actors and the way he conveys emotions with a suppressed intensity brings to mind Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest". However, instead of Bresson's strict minimalism, Delpero establishes a softer, more human distance with his characters.

The visual compositions of the film translate the use of light in Vermeer's interior paintings into cinematic language. This approach is not just a visual emulation, as in Peter Webber's "Girl with a Pearl Earring", but becomes a narrative tool that reflects the inner worlds of the characters. In particular, the way Lucia is framed conveys the introverted intensity of Vermeer's portraits of women.

Unlike recent films such as "The Silent Twins" or "The Zone of Interest", which depict the life of an isolated community during wartime, "Vermiglio" does not show violence directly, but instead focuses on the psychological impact of its distant presence. This approach, like Terrence Malick's "A Hidden Life", combines the idyllic beauty and tragic dimension of everyday life in the shadow of war.

The way the film uses seasonal transitions, like in Andrei Tarkovsky's "Mirror", links the flow of time with the cycle of nature. The transition from the closed, protective world of winter to the open, harsher reality of spring shows how human adaptation mechanisms change in the face of global crises.

Inspired by director Delpero's own family history, the film is in dialog with personal history narratives such as Sarah Polley's "Stories We Tell" or Chantal Akerman's "No Home Movie". However, "Vermiglio" manages to transform individual memories into a universal narrative.

One of the most striking achievements of the film is how it tells the micro-history of a small community while reflecting the effects of a macro event like World War II. In this respect, it draws parallels with the way Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon" deals with pre-World War I German society. Both films examine the processes of change and transformation of small communities in the shadow of major historical events.

Within this rich web of cinematic and cultural references, "Vermiglio" manages to preserve its own unique voice. The film reinterprets traditional narrative conventions with a minimalist approach and stands out as one of the most remarkable festival films of 2024 with its visual poetry and thematic depth.

"Vermiglio", Maura Delpero's second feature film, which won the Leone d'Argento (Grand Jury Prize) at the Venice Film Festival in 2024 and was screened at the Toronto Film Festival, is a moving family drama set in the Italian Alps during the last year of World War II. The film also won the Gold Hugo for Best Film at the Chicago Film Festival, cementing its success.

As I mentioned earlier, the visual aesthetic of the film is particularly striking. The camera of Mikhail Krichman, cinematographer of films such as "Leviathan" and "Loveless", often positions the characters as small figures in huge mountain landscapes, while the winter light takes on an almost liquid quality. Each frame is carefully composed like a Vermeer painting.

We have already mentioned that the narrative structure of "Vermiglio" consists of chapters reminiscent of Balzac's realism, but let's elaborate a bit: As in the recently released "The Taste of Things", this structure emphasizes the sensory texture of everyday life. Unlike Tran Anh Hung's film, however, "Vermiglio" focuses less on pleasure and freedom and more on the existence of its characters, especially women, under social constraints.

Critics have interestingly compared the film specifically to the cinema of Ermanno Olmi, which I don't agree with. Yes, Delpero's minimal approach, focus on the rituals of everyday life, and ability to blend naturalistic acting are commendable, but the film is also a micro-story that beautifully depicts almost static time through emotions and characters.

On the other hand, "Vermiglio" avoids the usual elements of war films. War is presented as a phenomenon that takes place far away and whose effects are felt indirectly. Instead, the film focuses on family relationships, social change, women's efforts for emancipation and the confrontation of traditional life with modernity.

In a society where men fight, I guess what is left is faith and love. And of course great poverty and misery. Verliglio successfully deals with this reality without manipulating it.

Italy's choice for the 2025 Oscar nomination, the film was also a remarkable box office success in its first week of release. It grossed an average of €5,000 per copy, the highest average of any movie in theaters.

The film's greatest achievement is that it manages to turn a personal family story into a universal narrative. In Delpero's words, "Vermiglio" is "the story of those left out of the great history". It is the story of mothers looking at the world through the kitchen window, of babies they cannot warm with thin blankets, of women waiting for their husbands and sons who never return. It is the story of a war without bombs and without great conflicts, but a profound human drama in the shadow of mountains that remind us every day how small human beings are.

Personally, this movie, which I can clearly call my Oscar nominee, will probably not win the award, but I say give a chance to this movie that warms you like a spring flowing warmly from a snowy mountain.