PalCinema Review: Vermiglio
December 24, 2024
FILM: VERMIGLIO
DIRECTED BY: MAURA DELPERO
STARRING: TOMMASO RAGNO, ROBERTA ROVELLI, MARTINA SCRINZI
RATING: 3 ½ out 4 stars
By Dan Pal
It’s 1944. The second World War is being fought. In an Italian mountain village called Vermiglio a large family deals with life as it comes at them. This is the new film from Maura Delpero, which is beautifully acted, directed, and shot. It’s a rich character study in which each member of this family has their own quirks and issues. The film slowly builds but it’s hard not to feel you are there in this poor but breathtaking setting.
The patriarch of the family is Cesare, who also teaches his children in a one-room schoolhouse. He’s strict and fairly cold. His relationship with his wife seems to be based on banging out one child after another. (At one point ten children are noted.) There doesn’t seem to be a lot of love between them. Then there’s their daughter Lucia who begins a romantic relationship with Pietro, a Sicilian man who is dodging the army. Their story forms an emotional center of the story. However, there are several other interesting characters such as rebel Virginia who wears her hair short and smokes discreetly in a barn. She becomes the object of curiosity of young Ada. (A hint at a potential lesbian connection is definitely present.
The younger children all are very well cast and perform their roles with an authentic charm. They add some nice humor to the film. All of the actors are quite good actually. Each of the characters they play could be the subject of their own movies.
This is basically a story full of traditions and those wanting to break them. Men might run the show but as one woman recounts, “the war turned men into idiots.” Cesare and his son Dino do not connect at all. We can only assume their masculine sensibilities will come to a major head at some point.
There is also a sense that Delpero is exploring the certitudes that many of these characters may come to inhabit, including what men are supposed to do and what happens to a woman if she doesn’t have one.
I like the time and place this film captures. It feels genuine and innocent while also filled with complications and indiscretions.
Vermiglio is Italy’s submission for the Best International Film Oscar this year. It opens in limited release on December 25th.
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