The lord of the Ants – 2022
Il signore delle formiche
Il signore delle formiche is a 2022 Italian comedy film directed by Gianni Amelio.
The film, presented in competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, traces the story of the writer and myrmecologist Aldo Braibanti, protagonist between 1964 and 1968 of a very controversial judicial process, the so-called “Braibanti case”, played by Luigi Lo Cascio.
In 1959 Aldo Braibanti, former partisan and exponent of the Italian Communist Party, returned to his hometown near Piacenza, where he gathered around him a cultural circle of young people; This triggers the suspicion of fellow villagers, who resent his idea of culture, his political vision and the suspicion that he indoctrinates their children. Among his followers there is the young Riccardo Tagliaferri, who, despite suffering the fascination of Braibanti, fails to emancipate himself from the retrograde mentality of his bourgeois family; when his younger brother Ettore meets the professor by pure chance, he immediately proves to be more permeable to his theses. Ettore will soon begin to attend the club: Braibanti will take him under his wing, removing Riccardo and causing the latter’s jealousy.
Slowly a homosexual relationship is established between Ettore and Aldo: the poet convinces him to leave his medical studies and invites him to cultivate his passion for painting, which triggers the wrath of Ettore’s mother. In 1964, Braibanti decided to go to Rome; Ettore, who has come into deep conflict with his family, decides to follow him. The two live together in a squalid boarding house: Aldo will then introduce the young man to Roman cultural circles, where he is well known (although often opposed); He soon realizes how much the life of the big city disorients his pupil.
Trailer
Theatregold Memorabilia – From Broadway to West End Click Image Above
Cast
Luigi Lo Cascio – Aldo Braibanti
Elio Germano – Ennio Scribani
Sara Serraiocco – Graziella
Leonardo Maltese – Ettore Tagliaferri
Anna Caterina Antonacci – Maddalena
Rita Bosello – Susanna
Davide Vecchi – Riccardo Tagliaferri
Maria Caleffi – Carla
Roberto Infurna – Manrico
Valerio Binasco – Pubblico Ministero
Alberto Cracco – Presidente della corte
Luca Lazzareschi – Vanni
Elia Schilton – Avvocato della difesa
Giovanni Visentin – Caporedattore
Fabio Zulli – Silvio
Francesco Barilli – Il padre
Giuseppe Aiello
Ermino Amelio
Director – Gianni Amelio
Writers – Gianni Amelio Edoardo Petti Federico Fava
The film reports in a completely inaccurate way the position of l’Unità: the official organ of the PCI openly took a position in favor of Braibanti and against the sentence, so much so that the day after the ruling published on the front page an editorial by its director, the former partisan Maurizio Ferrara, in which he denounced in no uncertain terms the obscurantist climate in which the trial had taken place.
Ferrara wrote:
“If there is something rotten that the Braibanti trial is demonstrating, it is not so much the existence of homosexuality, as the racist ferocity, the vulgar mockery, the smell of lynching that its suspicion unleashes in environments in which morality is identified with the most obscurantist and repressive moralism; the more ruthless the more hypocritical and attested on a right-thinking tradition marches to the core, which unleashes, every day, dramas and lacerating contradictions.
The film premiered in competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on 6 September 2022, and was then distributed in Italian cinemas by 01 Distribution starting from 8 September of the same year.
The lord of the Ants – 2022
Il signore delle formiche – 2022
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Critics’ reviews
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“Solemn, stately and perhaps a little stifled, it’s the kind of queer statement you might expect from a veteran filmmaker who wasn’t until relatively recently out and proud, and is rather poignant for that.”Guy Lodge: Variety
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a film that otherwise is too elegantly restrained to build sustained power. Even the period pop sprinkled throughout doesn’t do much to shake off the starchiness. But audiences interested in LGBTQ history (…) could do worse.”David Rooney: The Hollywood Reporter
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“The message does become preachy and hyperbolic at times. Still, The Lord of the Ants is a powerful reminder of what happens when people would rather be subordinate than take control of their destiny.”Valerie Complex: Deadline
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“Strong performances may not be enough to overcome audiences’ lack of familiarity with the Braibanti case (…) ‘Lord Of The Ants’ is at its best when it sticks most closely to the facts” Lee Marshall Screendaily
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“Amelio’s directorial approach is overly classical, and it struggles to convey the stylistic registers expected by the new generations to whom the film’s themes and lessons are presumably addressed”Camillo de Marco: Cineuropa
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The lord of the Ants – 2022, Il signore delle formiche, The Lord of the Ants, gay love story, Gay Movies, Gay Cinema, Queer Movies, Gaymen, gay love, gay stories, Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Sara Serraiocco, Leonardo Maltese, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Rita Bosello, Davide Vecchi, Maria Caleffi, Roberto Infurna, Valerio Binasco, Alberto Cracco, Luca Lazzareschi, Elia Schilton, Giovanni Visentin, Fabio Zulli, Francesco Barilli, Giuseppe Aiello, Ermino Amelio, Gianni Amelio, Gianni Amelio, Edoardo Petti, Federico Fava
