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Children
of the corn
On
a very hot summer's day in the seventies, six kids riding
their bikes venture undaunted into the vast expanse of
cornfields that characterize the Apulian hinterland.
Ten-year-old Michele Amitrano stays behind, looking for his
little sister's glasses, and ends up coming across Filippo,
his own age, almost a skeleton and trapped inside a hole dug
in the ground...
Thus begins “Io
non ho paura” (Einaudi, 2001), the best-known and
best-selling novel by the young Roman writer Niccolò
Ammaniti, faithfully reproduced by Gabriele
Salvatores in his fine film version, now showing in
Italian cinemas.
Making just a few changes to the original, the director of
“Mediterraneo” (1991) happily crosses certain
impressions of rural horror - from Pupi
Avati's “La casa
dalle finestre che ridono” (1976) to
Fritz Kiersch's “Children of the Corn” (1984) - with the
best of films about childhood, from Rob Reiner's “Stand by
me” (1986) to the classics of Truffaut or Comencini.
Mixing tenderness and cruelty, between Stephen King and Mark
Twain, “Io non ho paura” is an extraordinary story about
the loss of innocence where an alternation of light and
shade, solids and voids, exteriors and interiors marks the
incompatibility between the world of children and that of
adults. Giuseppe Cristiano is a very intense Michele, and
Mattia Di Pierro brings to life the aspects of a tormented
childhood; whereas, standing out among the adults is the
superb performance by Diego Abatantuono as the villain who
knows no regret or sorrow, outlined by the actor with a
singular and all-Milanese fierceness.
Francesco
Troiano
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