News for
Valentina Carnelutti More at IMDbPro »

1 item from 2006

7 August 2006 | The Hollywood Reporter | See recent The Hollywood Reporter news »

LOCARNO -- Dismayed by the prospect of a lifetime spent toiling at the local oil refinery, the teenaged rebel in Enrico Pau's cautionary tale Jimmy della Collina (Jimmy from the Hill) discovers that armed robbery only leads to a worse kind of imprisonment.

Enjoying a world premiere in competition at the Locarno International Film Festival, the Italian movie offers some impressive performances, especially from Nicola Adamo, as the fiery Jimmy, and Valentina Carnelutti, as a woman who works with young offenders. The bright acting gives the film its best chance of standing out from the pack; however, it lacks any real spark that would enliven a familiar tale of a restless youngster, who sees crime as a quick way to escape the tedium of a dead-end job. Boxoffice is unlikely to be exceptional even in Italy.

His father's acceptance of work amid the grim furnaces and stacks at the refinery condemns Jimmy to a gloomy future. While petty crimes offer distraction at first, he quickly aims higher. Director and co-writer Pau, working from a novel by Massimo Carlotto, quickly sketches the young man's disenchantment, which is fed by tall tales of past crimes by blowhards in the local bars.

Bored with his girlfriend and even the local hooker, Jimmy urges his buddies on from burglary to robbing banks but they chicken out and he is caught and incarcerated. Narrowly avoiding adult imprisonment, he is sentenced to serve three years at a juvenile detention center. There he meets fellow inmates Simone (Federico Carta), who has a creative mind but who giggles incessantly, and Salvo (Giovanni Cantarella), a tattooed body-builder with a quick temper.

Simone offers something like friendship but Salvo's thin skin brings out the worst in Jimmy and leads to a violent episode. As a result, Jimmy is a transferred to the Collina, a halfway house run by a kindly deacon, Don Ettore (Francesco Origo). The place offers a modicum of freedom but it also requires discipline and hard work from its inmates.

The compassionate Claudia (Carnelutti) intrigues him, but Jimmy's inarticulate desire to escape a humdrum life drives him to reject the opportunity to take a different path in life.

Pau evidently wishes to present the young man's dilemma as a universally defining moment. Some hard truths are delivered effectively but the picture is not dynamic enough to make an ordinary tale memorable.

JIMMY DELLA COLLINA

XFilm Rome

Credits:

Director: Enrico Pau

Screenwriters: Antonia Iaccarino & Enrico Pau

Producer: Guido Servino

Director of photography: Gian Enrico Bianchi

Music: Sikitikis, Gaetano Mastroiaco

Editor: Johannes Hiroshi Nakajima.

Cast:

Jimmy: Nicola Adamo

Claudia: Valentina Carnelutti

Don Ettore: Francesco Origo

Burattinaio: Massimiliano Medda

Salvo: Giovanni Cantarella

Simone: Federico Carta

Mohammed: Mohammed El Gahilassi

Tonio: Andrea Diomedi

Pietro: Riccardo Sanvido

Fidanzata: Eleonora Usala

Padre: Giovanni Carroni

Madre: Gisella Vacca

Prostitute: Caterina Silva

Penitentiary agent: Sergio Piano

Malavitoso: Silvano Portoghese

Psychologist: Antonio Murru

Institution director: Gabor Pinna

Francesco: Corrado Licheri

Tore: Pino Corda

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 90 minutes »

Permalink | Report a problem

1 item from 2006