Portobello is a great drama for Italy. And wishing the review could also end here leaving the interpretation to those who want to read and watch the miniseries on HBO Max from February 20. We expand the context. Portobello arrives after Esterno Notte another miniseries of Marco Bellocchio to tell an important and controversial event of Italian history. The series was initially announced by Our Films when it was under development, as a production destined to the exit in the hall following the model of the previous work.
Warner Bros took the opportunity of such a controversial theme, of such a beloved and recognizable author in Italy and abroad, to transform it into the first original series. The choice was therefore to start with a popular but author project, hoping to capture that collective interest that the story of Tortora and the name of Bellocchio could bring around HBO Max. The presentation at the Venice Film Festival was the cherry on the cake. Everything is perfect for what is a great drama for Italy.
Portobello tutto perfetto ma…
The miniseries is impeccable from a technical and aesthetic point of view. Perfect reconstruction of those years, from costumes to environments. Excellent protagonists with Fabrizio Gifuni skillful to give life to his Tortora and not to the plastic imitation of the existing. But all actors have rendered an impeccable service to the miniseries. There is nothing that can be criticized for the miniseries from this point of view, objectively we are in front of a great author’s fiction, as I have already had the opportunity to repeat.
Inevitably, however, personal considerations enter, because Portobello is rightly didactic in the development of his story. So just have a minimal knowledge of the story of Enzo Tortora’s story to find himself looking at a sort of fiction-documentary. At that point it is the personal taste that guides the choice. If you see the staged, with allied and spectacular digressions, the tragic history of a man who has made the history of TV, may interest or not, if it is this type of products that we consider or not entertainment.
Un antipatico di successo
An interesting aspect is how Enzo Tortora is portrayed as an arrogant borious and quirky snob intellectual, bent to a popular facade national with the aim of conquering millions of spectators. A successful antipath who perhaps, even for this reason, found himself only in the moment of difficulty. The way Bellocchio manages to make the character’s astonishment in front of the accusations that are brought to him is impeccable. Tortora embodies that rabid discomfort that proves anyone who tries to reason in front of those who merely stay on the surface often anchored to difficult preconcepts to move even in front of the evidence. The miniseries reflects the intellectual rationality of its protagonist avoiding to exceed in emotionally engaging moments, preferring to move the look on the chamoristic component rather than on the familiar one.
I dubbi sulla scelta HBO Max su Portobello
After the vision of the miniseries, which is perfectly in line with the path of Marco Bellocchio and with what is a product in which however there is the involvement of Rai Fiction and then sooner or later destined to the general public, the choice of HBO Max seems increasingly unusual that preferred the name recall regarding the consistency of the platform. If years ago Sky in the choice of his original productions had consistently embraced the HBO model, with his landing in Italy HBO Max seems to have attempted to pursue an authorial Italian taste, rather than proposing a title consistent with his own platform.
Just in a simple way, from my modest point of view, Portobello does not seem to me able to move the masses and push to subscribe, perhaps it could capture a share of viewers of Fabio Fazio, but in parallel does not appear the title that can fascinate those who have subscribed for present and future HBO titles. It seems more a choice of positioning in the scenario of criticism, festivals, Italian intelligence.
Il periodo sfortunato
And the lack of appeal also demonstrates the fact that the unfortunate coincidence of coming close to the referendum on justice (for which on social Gaia Tortora fights so also vehemente in favor of the Si) has been widely ignored, despite some doubt born during the press conference and veemente rejected by Bellocchio.
Undoubtedly if the fiction as from the original plane, had gone out to the cinema and then passed on the Rai, this period would have been avoided not to be exploited as propaganda for the Si. In fact, despite not necessarily having a reflection on the referendum, cases of ill justice are often used by some propaganda for the Si. And what better representative case than Tortora.
The vote for Portobello is high because it is an objectively done miniseries. But it remains a choice that makes you think.
L’articolo Portobello, the review: a great drama for Italy proviene da Dituttounpop.it.
