MikePadgett.com

Malèna

— Tornatore's poetic, hormonal paean to the youthful worship of a fallen goddess.”

• Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
• Italy, 2000
• 

It’s tempting to think of Malèna as a shrink-wrapped, ultra-compact, bitesize companion piece to Tornatore’s meandering, elegiac ode to movies Cinema Paradiso. But while both pictures feature protagonists still in the grip of childhood, what drives young Renato here is something less innocent and more erotic. For what’s barely hinted at in the snipped reels of Salvatore’s silver screen is the very epicentre of this great quaking story of an iconic siren.

The siren in question is Malèna Scordia, admirably filled with equal parts mystic and sympathetic by Monica Bellucci, for whom this role seems especially fitting. Yet the contrast between the leading lady of hormonal Renato’s nocturnal wanderings and the reality of a troubled, vulnerable woman struggling with widowhood and wartime couldn’t be greater. It’s through this counterbalance that the movie’s tone turns bittersweet and mines a rich seam of dramatic gold.

For those of us who hold fond memories of Paradiso, Malèna comes off a bit rushed. It’s almost as if Tornatore seems worried about getting away with his usual languid pacing. Nevertheless, everything’s memorably and confidently photographed and even the camera’s love affair with Bellucci doesn’t stop the film from hitting the right emotional notes.