On my regular weekly trip to the cinema I went to see this…
Michael Winterbottom’s ‘Genova’ (2008). Within ten minutes I was stuck by the connection with this much early film…
‘Don’t Look Now’ (1973), Nichols Roeg’s cinematic masterwork. Winterbottom is clearly paying homage to Roeg’s groundbreaking film. From the off 'Genova' has a deeply unsettling mood, brought about by Marcel Zyskind’s cinematography – erratic, hand held and constantly on the move, using available light to such and extent that whole scenes appeared to be underexpose, which adds to the claustrophobic and menacing quality of the film. This coupled with the location – Genova’s labyrinthine network of alleyways and a brilliantly skillful soundscape by Joakim Sunstrom. We are drawn into the darkness of this world, populated with shadowy, menacing figures and the cries, whispers and swirling echoes of life in these unsetelling ancient canyons. Winterbottom replicates the same sensation achieved by Roeg in the darken canals and alleyways of Venice, so loving pieced together over three decades ago. The Basic outline to ‘Genova’ goes like this. Following the tragic death of Marianne, wife of Joe, played by Colin Firth. He along with his two young daughters move from Chicago to Genova in Italy for a one year teaching post, in order to try to put their lives back together. While there Firth’s youngest daughter, Kelly – who was inadvertainly the cause of car crash blames herself for her mother's death – begins to hear her mother talking. And later beings to see her. So we have a similar scenario as ‘Don’t look Now’ with the roles reversed – Daughter dies tragically in the opening moments of the film. Mother, played by Julie Christie, recuperates in Venice with her husband, Donald Sutherland. While eating in a restaurant Christie is told by a blind woman, also in the same dining room and is clairvoyant, that Christie’s dead daughter wants her to know that she is happy. From there on begins a bizarre series of events. If you’ve never seen it, you should. Both films have climatic endings that draw all the character together to a single point. In ‘Don’t Look Now’ it is the death of Sutherland. In ‘Genova’ it is the near death of Kelly. But the latter film lacks power and fades in comparison to the final moments of ‘Don’t Look Now’. But for all that Winterbottom has made a throuhrly compelling film, with clearly little budget, but a highly creative crew and ensemble of actors. Well worth paying for an unsettling 93 minutes.