rjporter Review of I ragazzi della via Pál

I ragazzi della via Pál (2003– )

A masterpiece of poetry and sensitivity, an evergreen story.

[10/10 · 9 December 2003]

SPOILER!!! "I Ragazzi della Via Pàl", an absolute masterpiece of poetry and sensitivity by talented Italian director Maurizio Zaccaro, is based upon a novel by Ferenc Molnar, inspired to a true story, and is set in the suburbs of Budapest, Hungary, at the beginning of XX century. Janos (Mario Adorf), a former artist gone downhill, lives with his dog in a shack in his last property, an old saw-mill in Pàl Street; Janos makes friends with little Nemecsek (Gàspar Mèses), who reminds him of his own son, dead at the age of ten; Nemecsek is the youngest member of a sort of gang of kids; Janos offers them his saw-mill as headquarters and playground, and he meets again Edith (Virna Lisi), the grandmother of one of the kids, whom he had loved some forty years before; unfortunately the friendship between the old man and the Kids of Pàl Street is threatened: a rival gang, the Kids of the Botanical Garden, tries to take over the saw-mill with the help of scheming traitor Gerèb, and a greedy real-estate dealer, Julia Gal, ex-wife of Janoks, starts a lawsuit to dispossess Janos of the saw-mill and have a building constructed in its place; the deeds of the gangs, preparing themselves for the final fight, are strictly entwined with the family troubles of some of the kids, Boka, leader of the Kids of Pàl Street, and his father facing bankruptcy, and little Nemecsek, whose parents are going to split; the story has a tragical epilogue: after being pushed in the pond of the Botanical Garden, little Nemecsek falls ill, and dies of pneumonia, and at last the leaders of the two gangs make peace, as Julia wins her battle in the court and takes possession of the saw-mill in Pal Street. This beautiful, timeless, evergreen story, exalting positive values such as courage, honour, loyalty and friendship has been masterly adapted for the screen, and was shot with a perfect reconstruction of the atmosphere of the Old Budapest; all the players are excellent, but the main strength of the movie is in the extraordinary group of Hungarian children cast to play the Kids; they act like true professionals, and all of them are terrific, but the best of them all is Gàspar Mèses as Nemecsek: his superlative performance gives him the status of a real child actor, and I hope to see him again on the screen. I strongly recommend this movie to anybody!