"Laura non c'è" ("Laura Is Not Here") was a pop-rock song written and performed by Italian singer Nek. It achieved a huge success in Italy, Europe and Latin America, as well as an entry in the Sanremo Music Festival 1997. It's about the longing for someone you can no longer connect with and the pain that comes from losing a person.
In 1998, director Antonio Bonifacio (Olga O's Strange Story, Scandal in Black) and writers Gianfranco Clerici (Murder Rock) and Daniele Stroppa (Delitto Passionale) took that song and made a movie out of it.
Lorenzo (Nicholas Rogers) is a comic book artist whose creations seemingly live in his head, as we see action in a bar - man that music sounds a lot like "Smack My ***** Up" by The Prodigy - that is later realized by his pencil and brushes. He hears an argument outside his apartment - which has more fog in it than Fulci's Conquest - and saves a girl from three thugs. She's Laura (Gigliola Aragozzini), the doomed lover of the song, but he doesn't know that yet.
Every time it seems like Lorenzo is getting close to Laura, she disappears. There's a moment in a neon cross filled cemetery where she's visiting the graves of her parents and tells him that she believes in reincarnation. Our comic book protagonist follows her everywhere, even getting kicked out of her apartment by several men, one of them who he thinks is her pimp. He finally succeeds in a night of romance with her, but wakes up to see track marks all over her arms, which causes him to be the one who disappears.
Little did he know that she was a diabetic and that the pimp was her doctor and that the man who kicked her out was her brother (Amadeus, an Italian DJ and television host). He's told that she's died from diabetes and that any time he spent with her was probably a fantasy. But oh wow - a cat that he meets on the street is Laura and the entire time, we've been in the world of another comic book. And guess who was drawing it? Nek.
The movie closes with Nek and Laura meeting as the song that inspires this movie plays.
This is honestly a strange film. It's made by filmmakers with a background in giallo - cinematographer Silvano Tessicini shot Murder Rock, Sensazioni d'amore and Luna di sangue - and it has some of that but it's also a pop song-based movie. I'm kind of amazed that it's a real movie.
In 1998, director Antonio Bonifacio (Olga O's Strange Story, Scandal in Black) and writers Gianfranco Clerici (Murder Rock) and Daniele Stroppa (Delitto Passionale) took that song and made a movie out of it.
Lorenzo (Nicholas Rogers) is a comic book artist whose creations seemingly live in his head, as we see action in a bar - man that music sounds a lot like "Smack My ***** Up" by The Prodigy - that is later realized by his pencil and brushes. He hears an argument outside his apartment - which has more fog in it than Fulci's Conquest - and saves a girl from three thugs. She's Laura (Gigliola Aragozzini), the doomed lover of the song, but he doesn't know that yet.
Every time it seems like Lorenzo is getting close to Laura, she disappears. There's a moment in a neon cross filled cemetery where she's visiting the graves of her parents and tells him that she believes in reincarnation. Our comic book protagonist follows her everywhere, even getting kicked out of her apartment by several men, one of them who he thinks is her pimp. He finally succeeds in a night of romance with her, but wakes up to see track marks all over her arms, which causes him to be the one who disappears.
Little did he know that she was a diabetic and that the pimp was her doctor and that the man who kicked her out was her brother (Amadeus, an Italian DJ and television host). He's told that she's died from diabetes and that any time he spent with her was probably a fantasy. But oh wow - a cat that he meets on the street is Laura and the entire time, we've been in the world of another comic book. And guess who was drawing it? Nek.
The movie closes with Nek and Laura meeting as the song that inspires this movie plays.
This is honestly a strange film. It's made by filmmakers with a background in giallo - cinematographer Silvano Tessicini shot Murder Rock, Sensazioni d'amore and Luna di sangue - and it has some of that but it's also a pop song-based movie. I'm kind of amazed that it's a real movie.
