For
showtimes, see the events listing.
Odeon
Piazza Strozzi, 2
tel. 055/295051
www.cinehall.it,
www.odeon.intoscana.it
THE RAVEN
April 1, 2
The only one who can stop a serial
killer is the man who inspired him: Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack) teams up with
Baltimore detective Fields (Luke Evans), in order to prevent his fiction from
becoming horrific reality. ‘It runs out of steam in the final 10 minutes, but
there’s some gruesome drama and Cusack is on decent form’ (The Guardian). ‘Besides being
an author, Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most vicious, merciless critics of
his age. He would not have let this get past him without skewering its
shortcomings with a barbed quill’ (Empire). ‘The Raven is a
squawking, silly picture that never takes flight’ (Variety).
HIT THE ROAD, NONNA
April 2, 3, 4
Delia Ubaldi is the daughter of poor
Italian emigrants to France and one of the most successful businesswomen in the
European fashion industry. Her talent has brought her enormous wealth despite
her difficult character and controversial methods. At almost 90, Delia recalls
with her grandson, director Duccio Chiarini, the most important episodes and
encounters of her life, reflecting the changes in fashion and society in
Western Europe in the twentieth century. Warmly received by critics at the
Venice and Rome Festivals last year.
FAR FROM HEAVEN
April 3
Todd Haynes’s beautiful 2002 homage
to the celebrated American melodramas of Douglas Sirk in the 1950s revisits the
period, but in the new permissive climate introduces elements of sexuality and
race that were not possible even as a subtext in Sirk’s day. Julianne Moore
gives a moving performance as perfect housewife Cathy Whitaker, whose marriage
and standing is severely challenged by the repressive culture of 1950s
Connecticut. ‘It rediscovers the aching, desiring humanity in a genre-and a
period-too often subjected to easy parody or ironic appropriation. In a word,
it’s divine’ (New
York Times). ‘The movie has the sense of being embalmed, or pickled. With its
stilted dialogue not quite kitschy enough to be funny and not quite authentic
enough to be realistic, the whole movie feels as if it’s taking place in
formaldehyde’ (Washington
Post).
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS
April 10
Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of Hunter
S. Thompson’s psychedelic road trip in search of the American Dream circa 1971
is a cult classic. Crazy journalist Raoul Duke and his psychopathic Samoan
lawyer Dr. Gonzo lose it completely in Las Vegas. ‘It is as deeply satisfying
as only the yowling, primal trashing of several rental cars and hotel rooms
while in the grips of a hopelessly depraved ether jag and several sheets of
blotter acid can be … A cinematic masterpiece’ (Salon.com). ‘The closest
sensory approximation of an acid trip ever achieved by a mainstream movie and
the latest example of Mr. Gilliam’s visual bravura’ (New York Times). ‘A horrible mess
of a movie, without shape, trajectory or purpose-a one joke movie, if it had
one joke’ (Roger Ebert).
