After the presentation at the Locarno Film Festival, Beckett, a new thriller directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino starring John David Washington. A project in which there is a lot of Italy, represented by the director (to his second work after Antonia.), By the producer Luca Guadagnino, of which Ferdinando Cito Filomarino was a close collaborator for years, and by the editor Walter Fasano, whose contribution is essential to give the work the fast pace that characterizes it. Among the protagonists of this story that mixes conspiracies and political tensions, in the scenario of Greece in full economic crisis, we also find Alicia Vikander, Boyd holbrook e Vicky Krieps.
Beckett: between conspiracies and riots, a dark thriller with an Italian soul
Beckett (John David Washington) is spending a quiet vacation in Greece with partner April (Alicia Vikander). The quiet is abruptly interrupted by a disastrous road accident, which leaves the man alone, wounded and frightened, in a foreign land and with the local authorities who are increasingly suspicious of him. The situation takes an increasingly sinister and violent turn. Between conspiracies and attempts on his life, with the only help of two activists, Beckett begins a flight to Athens, in the hope that the US embassy can protect him from any danger.
Ferdinando Cito Filomarino's work has the ambition of amalgamating genre cinema, government intrigues and the complex Greek situation of 2009/2010, clearly referring to cornerstones of the vein such as Frantic di Roman Polanski and The Fugitive of Andrew Davis. John David Washington is perfect in the role of a man deprived of any emotional and social point of reference, which also becomes the perspective from which the viewer observes a story that becomes more and more tangled, with double and triple games and an increasingly more antagonist. difficult to identify in a single person.
Ferdinando Cito Filomarino: do we have a new author of our cinema?
Poised between suspense and civil commitment, just like its protagonist Beckett sways several times between different registers and different themes, risking to sacrifice both entertainment and social reflection, as well as the purely emotional component of the story. To amalgamate all these factors is the work of the filmmaker, who puts aside the directorial flourishes and literally sticks to his protagonist, probing his moods with continuous close-ups and close-ups. In addition to the aforementioned contribution from Fasano, the contribution of the director of photography is also fundamental Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, former collaborator of Guadagnino for Call me by your name and Suspiria, who succeeds in the not easy intent of giving homogeneity to a story that constantly changes scenery, passing from the most uncontaminated nature to cold public offices, and then again to embassies and squares in revolt .
Of course, not everything succeeds in Ferdinando Cito Filomarino, and there remains the feeling that the complex social situation of Greece of a few years ago only touches the surface. Even the possible hook with the current debate on racism is made only implicitly, without ever emphasizing the problems of a black man, a foreigner, in the Greece of the time. However, there is satisfaction in noting the newfound international ambition of local productions and co-productions (also involving Rai Cinema) and the courage to focus on a young Italian talent (just 34 years old), who after a biopic linked to the national imagination like the one on Antonia Pozzi he proves to be an author capable of effectively managing Hollywood stars and strong in his own idea of cinema. Waiting to see this young filmmaker at work again, the inevitable question is: is a star born?
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