Directed by Mario Martone. Con Elio Germano, Michele Riondino, Massimo Popolizio, 137’.
In Italian with English subtitles.
The film is based upon the short but fruitful life of the legendary 19th century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi. Director Mario Martone’s film, a scrupulously researched and cinematically staged period biopic, gives us the full sweep of the restless and often terribly unhappy events of Leopardi’s life, set within the turbulent context of early 19th-century Italian society, politics, and literature. However this is no academic exercise – it is a powerful, moving search for identity and artistic self-expression by a brilliant misfit, memorably played by Elio Germano (My Brother is an Only Child).
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