Monday 22 July 2019
10.00 am & 6.30 pm
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher
Drama- Italy (sub-titles)
128 mins PG-13
Beloved by audiences and critics at Cannes (where it was awarded the Best Screenplay prize), Alice Rohrwacher’s beautiful, much-anticipated new film is a beguiling allegory of love, loss and compassion exploring the troubled soul of Italy.
It’s summer at Inviolata, an isolated rural estate, where an extended family of tobacco farmers toil under the rule of a domineering marchesa, and where the handsome and hard-working Lazzaro (captivating newcomer Adriano Tardiolo), a young man imbued with a saint-like innocence, is alternately adored and taken advantage of. When the marchesa’s self-absorbed son, Tancredi (Luca Chikovani) first visits the fields, he senses an opportunity and embroils Lazzaro in an audacious plan to swindle his mother.
Channelling the spirit of Pasolini, Rohrwacher’s fascinating tale casts an ethereal, wondrous spell, and confirms her status as one of the most inventive and compelling voices in contemporary Italian cinema.
Reviews
“Happy As Lazzaro… is a weightless enigma, an unfathomable promise of happiness, gently tugging you upward, like a balloon on the end of a string.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
“Rohrwacher’s eye for gestures is revealing of class, pride, humour, and values. – Simran Hans, Observer (UK)
“The third feature from Italian director Alice Rohrwacher is an ambitious magic-realist fantasia with a political edge and a number of surprises up its sleeve.” – Jake Wilson, The Age, Australia