This year, the Lavazza Italian Film Festival presents a range of Italian box office hits, including the light-hearted The Night Before Exams (Notte Prima Degli Esami). After witnessing the first five minutes of this film, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d accidentally stumbled into a subtitled version of John Hughes. Its introduction bares all the classic hallmarks of American eighties teen comedy – from fluro leggings and novelty shirts through to sweeping aerial shots of enthusiastic adolescents engaged in synchronised partying around a glittering backyard pool. And, like any respectable teen comedy, Luca (the awkward-looking teenager who directs the story with his reflective narration, played by Nicolas Vaporidis) is simultaneously facing girl and teacher troubles. He is in love with the beautiful Claudia (Cristiana Capotondi), who may or may not remember his name, and he’s just gone ahead and insulted a literature professor (Giorgio Faletti) before realising that the teacher will actually be sitting in on his oral exam. What a conundrum!
Beyond this predictable exposition, though, The Night Before Exams does carry some endearingly European characteristics. For starters, this film features a lot of breasts. That’s right; like any foreign film worth its salt, it’s just that little bit racier than its American counterpart. Also, there’s a fair amount of actual drama. Rather than simply dealing with high school stereotypes and the real people beneath them, this film is tinted by some more serious themes like teen pregnancy, loyalty, respect, trust and death. These dramatic developments sit comfortably alongside the comedic antics of the main characters, appropriately conveying the teenagers’ swinging emotional states. This film is nothing spectacular, but the narrative is simple enough to easily enjoy, and deep enough to actually respect a little, while the colourful eighties milieux provides solid entertainment value. After all, if a film’s dramatic conclusion is accompanied by “The Final Countdown,” then you know it must be good value.
A more serious offering, being showcased as part of the same film festival, is One Out of Two (Uno Su Due). Following up on his reputation for realistically representing contemporary Italian life, director Eugenio Cappuccio introduces us to the high-flying corporate lawyer, Lorenzo (Fabio Volo), without making any attempt to direct our sympathy towards him. The film essentially begins when the seemingly-invincible Lorenzo suddenly faints and ends up in hospital, only to wake up and discover that he has a malignant brain tumour. Forced to wait several weeks for the results of his biopsy, Lorenzo grows increasingly enraged – at the perceptive cancer patient he is forced to share a room with, at his usually-meek business partner and at his caring girlfriend. Having fought hard all his life in order to climb the ladder of financial prosperity, Lorenzo does not react well to this sudden bout of special attention, no matter how well-intentioned.
This film takes a while to truly gain momentum. The first half mainly charts Lorenzo’s growing irritation as he awaits the test results, which is frustrating for audiences. Perhaps exactly because the film so accurately captures Lorenzo’s impatience, you’ll find yourself sharing it and genuinely willing the tedious wait to come to an end, which is a not altogether desirable effect. Once events begin to speed up, though, and as Lorenzo finally begins to grow as a character, the plotline does deliver some genuinely touching developments. It’s also hard not to notice Volo’s outstanding turn as Lorenzo, which just seems to grow stronger as the film progresses. Volo was actually awarded Best Italian Actor at the Rome Film Festival for this part, and rightly so. He subtly injects the character with an overwhelmingly rich complexity, conveying a multitude of contradicting emotions through a single look. His performance is a definite highlight in what is otherwise a fairly unremarkable offering.
The Night Before Exams: 6.7
One Out of Two: 5.9
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