SPAGHETTI STORY by Ciro de Caro

Ciro de Caro represents the restlessness and frustration of a whole generation in his coming of age comedy drama Spaghetti Story. This film will be screened at the London Genesis Cinema on Sunday the 26th of October and open up the first season of CinemaItaliaUK, a project that aims to promote modern Italian cinema by screening new Italian films that have yet to be screened to a wider British audience.
 
It's difficult to narrow down the story in a series of sentences, as the film focuses more on the atmosphere of its settings and an honest, it ironic and a times downright comedic, representation of the frustrations of today's Italian young adults. Nevertheless, it can be said that these four characters are also very normal in their own ways, and even the pivotal actor who dreams of being an actor but tries too hard to please and hence conceals any true talent for his art form, struggles to pay the bills and is slowly losing the respect of his girlfriend with his lies and a lack of will and strength to satisfy her true needs. The only one who seems to be able to see right through him is his streetwise friend who preaches like a Franco Citti figure in a Pasolini movie.
The reference to the glorious past of Italian cinema, particularly the one from the sixties and seventies when comedy was deeply sad and melancholic, is suited. This stark contrast is also what made the genre of the Commedia all'Italiana so famous worldwide. While Spaghetti Story disguises itself as a comedy and does get its fair share of laughs, most of which will go down well with an international audience, it is born out of a depressing and depressive atmosphere of drag and hopelessness that tinges the film with everyday melancholia. 
 
The fact that the film exists at all is just as impressive. Apart from mentioning the clever screenplay and the likeable performances by the cast that further humanises the characters, it must also be noted that Ciro de Caro shot this film in eleven days with a very small budget. This fact in itself shows an impeccable synergy between the narrative and filmmaking technique.
 
For more info on the screening of Spaghetti Story in London, visit https://www.cinemaitaliauk.com/