I ragazzi di via Panisperna (1989)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Gianni Amelio

Writers:

Gianni Amelio (writer)
Vincenzo Cerami (writer)

Cast

Andrea Prodan	...	Ettore Majorana
Mario Adorf	...	Corbino, ministro e preside di Facoltà
Ennio Fantastichini	...	Enrico Fermi
Laura Morante	...	Laura, moglie di Enrico Fermi
Virna Lisi	...	Signora Majorana, la madre di Ettore
Alberto Gimignani	...	Emilio Segrè
Michele Melega	...	Franco, assistente di Fermi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Stefano Antoci	...	Ettore bambino
Lidia Biondi	...	Segretaria dell'università
Carlo Boldrini	...	Bidello Umberto
James Braddel	...	Giornalista del Times
Giorgio Dal Piaz	...	Bruno Pontecorvo
Matteo Di Castro	...	Studente
Georges Géret	...	Francese, amico di ettore
Sabina Guzzanti	...	Ginestra, fidanzata di Edoardo
Peter Hinz	...	Professore tedesco
Cristina Marsillach	...	Cugina di Ettore
Eleonora Morabita	...	Carmelina
Bianca Pesce	...	Suora
Giovanni Romani	...	Edoardo Amaldi
Valeria Sabel	...	Annunciatrice EIAR
Nicola Vigilante	...	Professore

Also Known As:

Enrico Fermi - Im Banne des Atoms (West Germany) (TV title)
Enrico Fermi - Sein Weg zum Ruhm (West Germany)

Runtime:

Italy:125 min

Country:

Italy | West Germany

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Company:

Beta Film

Different Levels Explored in a great movie

It is hard to find a work of art which satisfies on SEVERAL levels. Here is one. Gianni Amelio's film was originally made as a 4 hour film for Italian T.V. and was then brutally edited to just under two hours for theater release. This was due to its success, both critical and public, on being aired. Certainly those who were fortunate enough to savor the complexity of the 4 hr. version may have lamented the outcome of it's cinema 'brother'. On the surface this is an account of the fascinating days of early 'nuclear' physics, in the now famous laboratories of Rome's Via Panisperna where talented students under the leadership of Enrico Fermi made myriad discoveries about the proprieties of the atom. The 'genius' here was, however, not Dr. Fermi, but his retiring, reticent student Ettore Majorana, a young Sicilian of noble standing and of a lineage of scientific experts (his uncle was the famous scientist Quintino Majorana). Gianni Amelio (director of 'gems' such as "Stolen Children" and "Open Doors") here uses the subject matter to return to his own personal obsession... the relationship between 'father' and 'son' characters, the fragile condition of the 'genius', the struggle between ethics and ambition. Is it possible to see the 'original' Panisperna? If the answer is no, the 'for cinema' version still is well worth the experience. We will share in Ettore's quandaries so intensely and 'dangerously' portrayed by Andrea Prodan, we will re-discover the 30ies through Amelio's candid eye, and that of his amazing cinematographer, the late Tonino Nardi. Maybe Amelio's most private and honest film. See it.