“Wild Blood (Sanguepazzo)” is the 2008 WWII drama from director Marco Tullio Giordana, highly anticipated in the Lavazza Italian Film Festival because it’s the latest movie featuring shapely Italian actress Monica Belluci.
Belluci plays the tragic figure of real-life actress Luisa Ferida, a strong-willed country girl that came to Rome to become an actress. She would fall in love with Osvaldo Valenti, one of the largest Italian stars at the time, and the two of them would become iconic actors during the rise of Fascism.
The film is striking and packed with emotional weight – I could feel the audience shudder at the most dire moments, a fluttery breath of relief when the terror faded. There are so few moments of joy in a movie about death and deception in World War II, especially in Germany and Italy, as filmmakers look to reconcile the horrors of that time with the craft of storytelling.
Giordana gives us an interesting look at an oft-forgotten aspect of the war: Osvaldo Valenti, played by Luca Zingaretti, and Ferida, played by Monica Belluci, found themselves in an awkward situation as the war stumbled at the end. The Fascist government was in retreat and the support from Germany was fading; what, then, could the artists and entertainers do?
Valenti and Ferida enjoyed some measure of autonomy and prestige, treated like celebrities and privy to private dinner parties. As things around them start to crumble, they use their notoriety to increase their chance of survival.
Of particular interest is Valenti: Zingaretti does an incredible job of bringing the drug-addled actor to life, lighting up the screen with passion and wit. There’s an undeniable trace of regret and sorrow on his face, immediately overcome by some theatrical act. By hamming it up, he brings laughter and relief to those around him, and they let him get away with almost everything.
In the dark hours of the war, he uses his acting talents to impersonate and intimidate soldiers – in one scene, which is almost a brilliant double-take on Obiwan Kenobi’s use of The Force on a stormtrooper in “A New Hope”, Valenti uses nothing more than a commanding presence and charisma to get their illegal truck through a barricade.
“Wild Blood” was well-received at Cannes, but has been criticized on some levels. The film makes use of that curse of modern cinema: the broken, non-linear storyline, used to artificially lend weight to the script. Additionally, the film seems to lack some excitement and passion in the sex scenes, which play a large part in the film, but are all disappointingly tepid.
Nonetheless, “Wild Blood” comes into view as a story of desperation and the will to survive, a chapter of history that never fades from horror, even more than 60 years later.
I say: Not a cheery, sunlight-lit film, but a dark, depressing look at the nastiest undercurrents of human nature. Gripping and tumultuous.
See it for: Belluci, after recently given birth, has put on quite a bit of weight, which makes her reluctant to show her body, it seems. A strange decision for an actress that claims that she loves to perform nude. Still, I don’t find her unappealing, as her fuller figure makes her seem maternal and nurturing.
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