MALDOROR
Venice 81 – Out of Competition
Belgium/France 2023 – Director: Fabrice Du Welz – Cast: Anthony Bajon, Alba Gaïa Bellugi, Alexis Manenti, Sergi López, Béatrice Dalle – Running time: 155 min
In 1996, Belgium was shocked by the tragic events linked to Marc Dutroux, later known as The Monster of Marcinelle. Over ten years, Dutroux kidnapped, tortured and raped six girls aged between eight and nineteen. However, the case turned out to be much more complex and controversial, involving the highest officials of the country, with the suspicion that a paedophile network including very influential people was being covered up. In the end, the only culprits were Dutroux and his wife, Michèle Martin, but even today, many shadows are still shrouding the investigation. Fabrice Du Welz draws from these facts to give his version of the story through a young policeman, Paul Chartier, obsessed with the case. He’s been assigned to a special unit on the monster’s trail. Du Welz, who brought the excellent Vynian to Venice in 2008, a psychological horror film set right after the tsunami in Thailand, is particularly fascinated by the origins of evil. He combines beautiful images, dynamic mise-en-scene and narrative that continually crosses genres, from horror to psychological thriller to action. Maldoror has the structure of a detective story, but again, it has many contaminations. The film’s protagonist is Anthony Bajon, who was spotted wearing a uniform in Venice in Athena (2022). In 2021 was the son of Vincent Lindon in Stéphane Brizé’s Un Autre Monde, and the year before was the star of Allons Enfants by Giovanni Aloi and Andrea Barone.
Alessandro De Simone
2073
Venice 81 – Out of competition – Nonfiction
Id., United Kingdom, 2024. Director Asif Kapadia. Running time 1h 23′
When presenting this year’s programme, the Artistic Director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera, said that the distinction between fiction and documentary cinema is ‘increasingly arbitrary‘. Further demonstration arrives with Asif Kapadia’s 2073. The film, directed by the hailed London director, is part of the section Out of Competition – Non-fiction selection. But the frame, as the title suggests, is a dystopic future that leads us to reflect, in a montage of authentic images, on the emergencies of our contemporary that could become the catastrophes of tomorrow, from authoritarianism to the climate crisis. The inspiration, not surprisingly, came from a post-apocalyptic masterpiece, the experimental short film La jetée (1962) by Chris Marker, where the experience of a time traveller is narrated through a series of photographs, reflecting (also) on the mechanisms of memory and our relationship with images. ‘I wanted to make an epic about the state of the world,’ Kapadia said of 2073,’ using elements of science fiction as a lens through which to examine the huge questions we are facing as a species and, hopefully, find solutions, before it’s too late.’ The British filmmaker has a remarkable track record in and out of the documentary genre, with titles such as his debut feature The Warrior (2001, BAFTA award-winning), Far North (2007, screened in Venice) and various works on sports and entertainment personalities such as motor racing driver Ayrton Senna in Senna (2010), singer Amy Winehouse in Amy (2015, Oscar winner) and footballer Maradona in Diego Maradona (2019).
Emanuele Bucci
LOS AÑOS NUEVOS (THE NEW YEARS)
by RODRIGO SOROGOYEN DEL AMO, SANDRA ROMERO, DAVID MARTÍN DE LOS SANTOS
with Iria del Río, Francesco Carril / Spain / 448′
Ana and Oscar are in their thirties, and a bad medical contract traps him, and he is still addicted to his ex. She has no partner or a job; she feels lost and plans to move away. They seem like two lives still searching for a direction, but when their paths cross, it becomes difficult to leave the city that, until recently, seemed the only way out. Time passes quickly, and over the next ten years, the two will have to come to terms with the decisions they make. ‘Los años nuevos ends up being about life, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that the visual and sound experience of watching the series will be very similar to contemplating the life and growth of two ordinary people,’ the director emphasises. ‘It’s like watching a summary of our last ten years of life condensed into seven and a half hours of footage, with the key moments, the boring parts and the unforgettable experiences.
Tiziana Leone
