Paolo Strippoli is an important film for many reasons. After the Arca Giovani Award as Best Italian Film at the world premiere in Competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, and after its international journey as First Runner Up of the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, it is at the cinema with 01 Distribution. It will be distributed abroad by Le Pacte (FR) in French territory, and is designated Film of Critics by the Italian National Film Critics Union as well as representing Italy at the Oscars 2027.
A woman suddenly presents herself at her daughter’s house to tell her the truth about their family, marked by a tight pact many years before with a stranger. A kept secret too long, which now returns to claim its price.
The photograph is curated by Cristiano Di Nicola, the installation is by Federico Palmerini, the original music of Robin Coudert, in art ROB, the costumes are entrusted to Susanna Mastroianni, the scenography is by Marcello Di Carlo, the supervision of visual effects is by Giuseppe Squillaci.
The film is produced by Marina Marzotto and Mattia Oddone for Propaganda Italia, with Rai Cinema and Dinamo Film. The film is co-produced by Jean-Christophe Reymond for Kazak Productions (FR) and Joseph Rouschop and Eva Curia for Tarantula (BE).
L’estranea di Paolo Strippoli, la nostra recensione del film
After the horror quotes and embellishment of the folkgorant A Classic Horror Story (co-directed with Roberto De Feo), after the experimental one for the first time in the solitary of Piove, after the most composite and religious one of The valley of the smiles, here is L’Estranea. The most mature and solid horror of Paolo Strippoli, born in 1993 Apulian (Corato) who lives in the capital. In this film he puts everything himself, starting from his double identity, setting the film between Bari and Rome, between the beginning of the New Millennium and the 2020 years that we are living.
The most millennial horror of the director, because he speaks not only of disintegration of the traditional family à la Mulino Bianco but above all of the promises disrespected to all those born in the 1980s-90s. They had (we had) so many dreams and hopes, that they gradually crumbled under their (our) hands only to be the damned generation of means. A bit of a family drama thriller, without forgetting the supernatural element, travels between quotes, homages between Faust, Allan Poe and Hitchcock. Through a highly evocative chapter structure, Strippoli and Salvatore De Chirico (with him to the screenplay) come across a story of lies and secrets that have held up (more or less) a family nucleus for too long, and now it is time (perhaps) to tell the whole truth.
But is it a real truth or a pretext of an extraordinary Jasmine Trinca (perhaps true villain of the story compared to the mephistofelica and passionate Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) to give a sense to all the dramas that happened to her? The film doesn’t tell us, let us interpret the meaning of the final while giving a perfect closed (basket) to the story.
The Colonna family is wealthy, it represents the success of the bourgeoisie of the New Millennium, actually made of hypocrisy and envy by friends and relatives. A nucleus created by a man (Giancarlo Giannini, here really succeeded) and a woman (Trinca) who pour on their children, male (Andrea Rossini, an authentic surprise) and female (Romana Maggiora Vergano, a confirmation) all their frustrations and their broken dreams. Who in football (the sport symbol of Italy, as in a dramatic and evocative scene during the film), who in the world of show. How bad can you do to your children by acting “for their good”?
In the end, what is life, especially the family, if not a continuous recitation in which everyone, once they have their own role, is it difficult for them to discourage and move away?
Excellent prosthetic trick, which Strippoli had already shown to cure in previous works, and here it reaches really high levels, at no cost in Italy. Precisely for this is important the goal of L’estranea that brings genre cinema (which has always told in mirror the brute of our society, where we are the real monsters called in question) to represent us in the shortlist of Oscar 2027. Regardless of whether or not they will enter in chinquina. We were saying, it is the most mature film of Strippoli because the most coherent and cohesive – someone will say at times too emphatic, at times a little predictable – but in fact, according to us, it is confirmation that voices like this are used to make the Italian cinema breathe again.
L’Estranea, la recensione: l’horror di Paolo Strippoli will bring the defeat of the perfect family to the Oscars? comes from Dituttounpop.it.
