TOThe cinema has just arrived The dark daughterthe long-awaited psychological thriller directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal – at the first direction with a transposition of Elena Ferrante.
Best Screenplay to the Venice Film Festival last year and nominated for 3 Oscars, the film starring Olivia Colman and Dakota Johnson it is certainly not the first adaptation from a book by the writer without identity. Despite the complex structure of her works, Ferrante is indeed widely looted by cinema and TV. They like his raw stories and also like a certain Italian oleography, especially abroad.
And above all a Netflixthat after The dark daughter has put in place the version of The lying life of adults.
Elena Ferrante: films and TV series based on books
Troubling love (1995)
Based on the first novel by Elena Ferrante, released in 1992, Troubling Love is the film that revealed the talent of Mario Martone.
The story is that of Delia (Anna Bonaiuto), forty-year-old illustrator transplanted to Bologna who he returns to Naples after the mysterious death of his mother. For the police it is a suicide, but the woman does not believe it, and begins a personal investigation between elaboration of mourning and reconstruction of the facts which leads her to revisit places and traumatic events linked to the past. A reality removed with strength and determination, even leaving the city.
Stirring thriller and melodramaMartone immerses himself in the carnality of Naples, sketching a poignant and never predictable female portrait. Unhooked from the book but respectful of the narrative, of the whole psychological complexity of a character which – as often among Ferrantian heroines – is difficult and repulsive.
Where to see it: Rakuten Tv, CHILI, Google Play, iTunes
Anna Bonaiuto in a scene from the film.
The days of abandonment (2005)
Presented to the Venice Film Festival from 2005 (amidst laughter and noises), Roberto Faenza’s film set in Turin tells the story of Olga (Margherita Buy), wife and mother of two children suddenly left by her husband Mario (Luca Zingaretti).
Between despair, tears and abulia, Olga slowly manages to overcome the traumaalso thanks to the love of a musician (Goran Bregović). And above all, understanding that much of his despair was due to the trap of the bourgeois conventions.
Despite the excellent narrative material, The days of abandonment fails to transfer the cathartic force of the novel (released in 2002). The fault is twofold: one too botched script and an acting over the top, that often leads to ridicule involuntary.
Where to see it: Infinity, CHILI, Google Play, iTunes
(Handle)
The brilliant friend (2018 – in production)
Taken from quadrology which date to Ferrante the world famethe HBO-Rai fiction directed by Saverio Costanzo and Daniele Luchetti (only for the third season) tells the story of the long conflictual friendship between Lila and Lenùborn in a poor district of Naples presumably in the 1940s.
The point of view of the narrative, and of the series, is that of Lenù (the television voice is that of Alba Rohrwacher). Through her gaze develops the complex relationship between the two friends, who grow up and admire each other, and who undertake asymmetrical paths that retain different points of contact, and a fascinating one ambiguity of reciprocal influence. Subtly denounced. Which of the two that has truly emancipated itself? Who has a real talent and who has one germinated only thanks to the strength of the other, and of study?
Sublime example of author seriality, The brilliant friend it is the product that has best represented Ferrante’s world to date. Its mysterious and complex figure, made up of changing emotions and prodigious abilities to dig into the female soul. Details like the reconstruction from the crib of the district then go into the background.
The broadcast of the third season has just ended, for the fourth and last – taken from the fourth volume Story of the lost child – the entry of Alba Rohrwacher in the role of Lenù. Gaia Girace and Margherita Mazzucco they are in fact too young to represent the two interpreters as adults.
Where to see it: RaiPlay
(Rai)
The dark daughter (2021)
First directed by Maggie Gyllenhaalthe film based on the 2006 novel by Elena Ferrante focuses on Leda (Olivia Colman), university professor English teacher and translator on vacation alone in Greece – where does he know Nina (Dakota Johnson), a young mother who is accompanied on the beach by an intrusive family clan.
Fascinated, and at the same time troubled, by the relationship between the girl and her child, Leda begins to identify with Nina and her attitudes of love and rejection. At the same time trying to save her From one relationship that he deems toxic. Secretly there is the abandonment of the teacher’s daughters when she was a student, that through a reckless act relives in the psyche of the woman and in the flashbackswhere it is interpreted by Jessie Buckley (Nominated for an Oscar as a supporting character along with Maggie – screenplay – and Colman – protagonist).
Soul thriller, The dark daughter therefore deal with delicacy conflicting feelings and contradictory, and a great unspoken: the impossible perception of a mother who chooses her own well-being between herself and her children.
Shot in a free and atmospheric way, the film is supported by the performance of Olivia Colmanexceptional in giving back ambiguity and mood swingsto center the buffering fulcrum of the character of Ferrante. To which Dakota Fanning approaches attractedand then rejected.
Where to see it: in cinemas from 7 April
The lying life of adults (in production)
The series directed by Edoardo De Angelis and based on the writer’s latest book, released in 2019, will arrive on Netflix before the end of the year. But, in the meantime, of the character of Giovanna (turbulent teenager from the 90s played by Giordana Merengo), some images of the set and of the other actors were released.
Teeanger in trouble, Giovanna has a problematic relationship with dad Andrea (Alessandro Preziosi), who often compares it in an unflattering way to mysterious aunt Victoria (Valeria Golino), a mysterious figure who has been away from his family for years. And he talks badly about.
Giovanna, however, wants to meet her, and pushes for a meeting. By which she remains fascinated, also for the family background that over time the relative begins to tell her.
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