This documentary premiered at the IDFA, the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam.
There's an old photograph, from 1937, of an Italian boys class, in which two giants of Italian filmmaking are seen: Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone. But who is the boy who stands between them?
This is a documentary about that quest: Finding who the boy is who stands in the middle.
So, at the IDFA screening, Denise Janzee stated that she wanted to make a film about "the boy in the middle" and .... that she, being the child of famous parents, was also in the middle. That I've never heard about her, or her parents, is probably beside the point.
That makes this docu nor a quest, but an ego-document: Her first film is about herself.
However, the film does start as a quest. They go to Italy, to Rome, and start looking for this boy, who, according to the photo is called Grisanti. Or, Chrisanti? The film then follows the usual pattern: Like a detective, they follow clues, they talk to a barber, to the owner of a cafe, to neighbors etc. After a while it's clear that this was a boy who became either a barrister, (abogado) or an engineer. The uncertainty about that is sort of a running gag in the film, and those at the viewing obligingly laughed about that. All of a sudden though, there's a minutes long shot of a old Italian man from the back, sitting on a public square, taking selfies with children, answering questions like a celebrity. Enter Willy Colombini. What's going on? It's not immediately clear, but the quest has suddenly turned into a film about signore Colombini. After the film finished, to the surprise of those present, the filmmakers declared that they knew the Crisanti boy was dead before they even started shooting, moreover, that they planned to have this Colombini character in their movie.
This, does feel like a real betrayal of the viewer. One starts this as a quest, but then turns into something contrived? No, no, no. Technically, this is a very well made product, but films don't live by production value alone.
The Melancholic Alcoholic. 5/10
