Third Review for "Beast On The Moon" in Italy
Richard Kalinoski's newest review for the Beast on the Moon is glowing praise from Nicola Arrigoni, who provided these poignant thoughts worthy of discussion (below is a rough translation of the review from Italian to English):
"A bourgeois interior designed by white workers, a table, a picture hanging on the wall, a coat rack: a space suspended in an absolute time. This is the setting in which A Beast on the Moon takes place by Richard Kalinoski, a work that slowly conquers, which knows how to combine private history with great history. In the background there is the genocide of the Armenian people, in the foreground the intimate story that ties Aram (Fulvio Pepe) and Seta (Elisabetta Pozzi), and young Armenians like him, married by proxy and from which he obstinately wants a son who does not arrive. The story of the two is told by that son now big and adopted (Alberto Mancioppi) that in the unfolding of the story is Vincenzo, an Italian scugnizzo (Luigi Brignone).
"The desire to rebuild a life and the need not to lose the story from which they come together coexists in the calculated coldness of Aram and in the giving of Silk, suffering in the pain of man and in the submission of women, an anachronistic giving but full of passion that ends with the breakdown of the wall of anger and loneliness of man. The roots of a distant land, the weight of the violence suffered and of the flight, the desire to start again and the fear of not recognizing each other makes the story of Aram and Silk a story that unfolds slowly, which asks the viewer the patience of listening and be guided.
"...The direction of Andrea Chiodi is refined and acute, intelligent and measured and when Elisabetta Pozzi finds the right fit together with Fulvio Pepe everything works, convinces, so too is in tune with the two protagonists Luigi Bignone; completely out of register Alberto Mancioppi, as well as his role as a contrite narrator, superfluous to the narration. The story - due to the strange alchemy that is created when the controlled naturalness of the actors takes over - sucks the gaze and attention of the spectator who lives, suffers, rejoices in the redemption and fulfillment of love of that Armenian couple in search of their harmony in which love and pain, the past and hunger of tomorrow are fulfilled in the present of lived history.
"A Beast on the Moon feels the pleasure of snuggling in the living room, being told a story not to distract, not for leisure but to know the life lived, the passions born, grown and accomplished in the shadow of history in which even a tragedy like massacre of the Armenians can become the dramatic starting point for a life renewed in love and in the desire not to give up. All this gives the happy hand of the director Andrea Chiodi and the proof of Pozzi and Pepe that when they find the right tone to be hit and get excited. And all this is not a small thing ... on the contrary."
