Baarìa (2009)

Baaria is Sicilian slang for Bagheria where Tornatore was born and this is an autobiographic epic of three generations in the Sicilian village where he was born.

Director:

Giuseppe Tornatore

Writer:

Giuseppe Tornatore (story and screenplay)

Stars:

Francesco Scianna, Margareth Madè, Lina Sastri

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 14 wins & 23 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Francesco Scianna	...	Peppino Torrenuova
Margareth Madè	...	Mannina
Lina Sastri	...	Tana / Beggard
Ángela Molina	...	Sarina
Nicole Grimaudo	...	Sarina as a young woman
Ficarra	...	Nino (as Salvo Ficarra)
Picone	...	Luigi (as Valentino Picone)
Gaetano Aronica	...	Cicco
Alfio Sorbello	...	Cicco as a young man
Lollo Franco	...	Don Giacinto
Giovanni Gambino	...	Peppino as a child
Giuseppe Garufì	...	Pietro as a child
Aldo Baglio	...	Speculator
Raoul Bova	...	Roman journalist
Paolo Briguglia	...	Catechist

Storyline

The film begins in the 1920's, in the Sicilian town of Bagheria (a.k.a. Baaria) where Giuseppe "Peppino" Torrenuova works as a shepherd to financially help his poor family. Over the next 50 years Giuseppe's life, as well as the life of the village, is observed. Giuseppe grows up, joins the Communist Party, marries a local girl (Mannina), has children and forges a political career for himself.

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Plot Keywords:

child | movie theatre | test of physical strength | bagheria sicily | five generations | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [France]

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Sicilian Italian English

Release Date:

25 September 2009 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Baaria

Filming Locations:

Bagheria, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

EUR28,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$15,952,759

Company Credits

Production Co:

Medusa Film, Quinta Communications, Regione Siciliana

Technical Specs

Runtime:

163 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Italy's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category for the 82nd Academy Awards; the other four films considered were: Fort Apache Napoli (2009), The Big Dream (2009), We Can Do That (2008) and Vincere (2009).

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Alternate Versions

The initial UK DVD release of the film (by eone entertainment) is heavily cut, missing a total of ten minutes of footage. Not only is the 'controversial' cow death scene almost entirely cut out (missing the actual cow execution and subsequent bloodletting), but most of the scenes in the film are abridged by at least several seconds (and a few times cut out entirely).

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Connections

References Salvatore Giuliano (1962)

User Reviews

Too epically ambitious

I saw this last month at the 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival. From famed writer/director Giuseppe Tornatore this was Italy's official submission to the 82nd Academy Awards for Best foreign Language Film and was nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category so despite its rather lengthy 150 minute run time I was looking forward to seeing this. Also it is set in beautiful Scicily and features 40 of Italy's top actors in lead and cameo roles and a music score from the great Ennio Morricone so on paper this looks like a sure-fire hit. It certainly has an epic quality about it and it's nice to look at but there are just too many acting roles with very little for them to do. The time frame of it's setting covering three generations is too ambitious. The story line is too weak. the story takes place across the first half of the 20th century. Peppino (Francesco Scianna) is the son of a Shepperd who grows up to be a local rep of the Communist Party and has a forbidden romance and marriage to the beautiful Mannina (Margareth Madè). Beautiful photography from cinematographer Enrico Lucidi complementing the lovely art direction and production design of Maurizo Sabatini and Cosimo Gomez with some nice special effects this is a great looking film but it's wandering story line and fairly weak dialog drags it down. There is a lot to like in this film but despite the expense that must have gone into making it it falls way short of being an excellent film. I would give it a 7.0 out of 10.