Wonderful ‘The sun of the future’, the new film by Nanni Moretti! Excuse me to start the review with such a vehement exclamation, but, at a Cannes Film Festival in which some of the veteran authors have presented films about the impossibility of making films, for whatever reason, Moretti’s proposal It is one of the most luminous views in the rooms of Cannes. It is a film full of life.
Unlike Jean-Luc Godard, Víctor Erice or Michel Gondry, who, like Moretti, have addressed works that speak of films that did not have the opportunity to see the light in their latest pieces, ‘The sun of the future’ offers in its conclusion a gap of hope: cinema as a community artwhich brings people closer and with which to walk towards the future with a smile on your face.
In his new film, the Italian tells us about cinema, love and heartbreak, and also the utopia of communism, emancipated from its dictatorial legacy. All this in just 96 minutes strung together in an intertextual framework (the Italian Communist Party, Kiewlovski, Scorsese, Fellini, Netflix) that gives it, as in Moretti’s works, a vaudeville character full of charm.
‘The sun of the future’: I want to see you dance
What exactly is ‘The sun of the future’ about? Moretti once again puts himself in the shoes of a filmmaker about to shoot a film that will face successive crises, both professional and personal.as the story progresses. His 40-year marriage to Paola (Margherita Buy) is on the line and there are all obstacles in his new film, about the Hungarian Autumn, when in 1956 the students of that country revolted against Stalin.
Posed as an autofiction that plays with the springs of the story (the fourth wall is broken, the scenes of the set (of Cinecittà) and those of reality are confused, etc.), life and its cacophony gradually filter into the film –in case we didn’t have enough narrative layers– and vindicate themselves against any attempt at nostalgia. Moretti, yes, he is nostalgic but also someone who resists being immobilized in the past.
Hence the film is at times a musical! Always moving forward, always moving. In this sense, there are two absolutely captivating musical scenes that take place on the filming set: the first to the sound of ‘Sono solo parole’, by Fabrizio Moroand the second, also on set and with the iconic ‘Voglio vederti danzare’, from the long-awaited Franco Battiato. How not to jump out of the seat to, in effect, start dancing in the movie theater with Moretti?
‘Il quarto state’, Moretti version
Is ‘The sun of the future’ the filmic testament of the Italian? A work that concludes a supposed trilogy? moretiana Also made up of ‘Caro diario’ and ‘Abril’? There is no doubt about the conclusive spirit of the proposal, which rambles on the end of everything that gives meaning to life (of Moretti), but it is still early to speculate about it.
What we are sure of is that the filmmaker, before falling off the precipice of anguish, bets on celebrating his affiliates. His phobias also parade across the screen (in two gags about film ethics and about Netflix), but here neurosis is transmuted into joyin a joie de vivre of which, checking the state of the world, I would say that we are in need.
It is exciting to observe how the filmmaker makes this subversive gesture that rebels against pessimism, the death of utopias and resentment. Its magnificent final sequence serves precisely to refute the idea that the cruelest individualism is taking sides. With a beautiful circus recreation of the painting ‘Il quarto stato’, by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, which brings together actors and actresses from the filmmaker’s universe, Moretti says goodbye. Full, endearing, festive.