Rsettle in a film halfway between reality and fiction. It matters little what has been fictionalized and what has not. What matters is to bring out perhaps for the first time, the personality of the protagonist. It is the goal of True Gem in Truedirected by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel And awarded at the Venice Film Festival 2022 in the horizons section with two prizes: Best Female Actress and Best Director.
Truethe plot of the movie
Vera is a woman in her fifties who has to deal with a heavy legacy: being the daughter of Giuliano Gemma. He spends his life between social events and borderline encounters. On background, a deep loneliness born of insecurity and from continuous search for itself.
One day, while in the car, his driver Walter (Walter Saabel) collides with a moped. They are on board Daniel (Daniel De Palma) and his son Manuel (Sebastian Dascalu), eight years old, who breaks his arm following a fall. For Vera opens a new chapter. Although they are diametrically opposed to her, he starts dating them. They live together with grandmother (Annamaria Ciancamela) in the extreme Roman suburbs. Money is scarce and hopes for a better future are almost nil.
In that small apartment, where sometimes there is even no running water, feels at home. The glossy world in which he has always lived finds its counterpart in the simplicity of the suburbs. Day after day, he fits into the family structure, exercising the role of putative aunt of Manuel. She picks him up from school, gives him presents and is interested in the operation needed to put his arm back in place.
However Daniel is, yes, desperate, but also violent. Many try to warn herfrom Walter to his closest friends, but he doesn’t care. She trusts the three and wants to give back something of what she has been given. And it also justifies what shouldn’t be justified. Unfortunately the truth soon comes out and, in the end, she has to come to terms with reality: she is duped for the umpteenth time.
The review
The 115 minutes of True they are a journey into the personality of its protagonist. A complex personality, with still several knots to untie. The father figure – whose portrait stands out in the bedroom – it is cumbersome, but at the same time reassuring. It is cumbersome when the actress tries to make her way with her own skills, but even today the comparison with the myth is impossible to bear. “It’s not enough to have a father like mine for doors to open wide for you”, he says in a joke. So goodbye auditions, goodbye film, on to the next one.
Vera Gemma and Asia Argento in a scene from the film “Vera”.
It’s reassuring because Vera loved him more than anything. While she watches old home movies with the sister Julianait does nothing but underline it the “incredible, rare” beauty. The beauty. A fixed nail, a goal to be achieved. «I grew up with an obsessive idea of beauty. In my house, being beautiful was a duty. Woe to you if you got fat. It was worse to get fat than to be addicted to drugs“, tells.
So the spotlight is also on relationship with surgery, started not of his will. «We had beautiful noses», he reflects with Giuliana, «I don’t understand why they made us do it again». And perhaps that was the beginning of a constant search for perfection, halfway between a Barbie and a transsexual. «I’m inspired by transsexuals. The more I look like a trans, the more beautiful I feel. I was madly in love with Eva Robin’s as a child,” she says.
Asia Argento’s cameo
To hit of True is the melancholy in the actress’s gaze. She never smiles, as if she doesn’t deserve to be happy. And even when he thinks he has found a shred of serenity, here comes the new beating, ready to remind her that no one can be trusted. Because most of those who meet it want to exploit it for their own benefit.
Vera Gemma with Sebastian Dascalu as Manuel.
The film is a bitter tale of a woman who has not been able to free herself from the weight of such a heavy legacy for fear of not being good enough. Of a woman who learned late to give a damn “what people say”. He thinks about shaking her Asia Argento, historical friend, as well as another daughter of art. They pause in front of the grave of Goethe’s son. «He doesn’t even have a name», says Asia, «in my opinion this tomb is a warning for us». She then adds: «Promise me not to see yourself only as Giuliano Gemma’s daughter. It is an emancipation that must start from you, from this label that they have put on us”.
Vera Gemma doesn’t make discounts. It is told through his alter ego in all his weaknesses. The plot outlines the portrait of a partially unresolved woman, ready to put herself aside to help those around her. Often sinning of naivety. And also the image of a daughter who has not been able to free herself from the constant comparison with your parent.
Certainly decide to act the part of herself in a film that points out her own frailties is a courageous gesture. And maybe even the beginning of a new path, thanks to which take her revenge, away from the shadows that have always been chasing her. It is no coincidence that the title skilfully omits her surname and now Vera can finally shine with her own light.
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