By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Gabriele Salvatores
Starring: Angela Baraldi | Claudia Zanella | Elio Germano | Gigio Alberti
Country: italy
Year: 2006
Running time: 105
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433028/
Bruce says: “Being no fan of Salvatores’ Oscar winning MEDITERRANEO or the more recent I’M NOT SCARED, I was a bit hesitant about seeing QUO VADIS, BABY? While I was somewhat pleasantly surprised, the film is not without its problems, and it took about half of the film for me to to warm up to the characters.
“Giorgia Cantini (Angela Baraldi) is a private detective who works for Il Capitano (Luigi Maria Burruano), an irascible boss who is also her father. As the film begins she is busily photographing the indiscretions of a wife. The husband is devastated to see the photos, the evidence accompanying the bill for services. Soon the wife is found murdered.
“When Giorgia receives a box of video tapes of her sister Ada (Claudia Zanella) from someone named Aldo, she begins a quest to re-investigate Ada’s suicide 16 years earlier. Was it suicide or murder? Suspects materialize from thin air once we see videos of Ada discussing her affair with someone named “A”. For example, the client with the murdered wife has a name beginning with A. Then there is Anna, a woman who was in love with Ada and Andrea (Gigio Alberti), a film professor at the University in Siena. When a policeman (Andrea Renzi) discovers an Anomaly with Ada’s Autopsy, I was convinced a band of A’s had gained control of the script.
“Strangely the film improves as the overwritten A’s take a backseat to the atmosphere of a true psychological thriller. A certain technical proficiency carries the film. Salvatores knows how to present his characters when they need close-ups and when they need proper space for the environment to help define the moment. The film’s variety works to its advantage as Ada’s videos and flashbacks to Giorgia’s childhood mix nicely with plot developments.
“Initially, Giorgia seems cut from the same mold that produced hard hitting American female detectives Kinsey Millhone, VI Warshaski, or Kay Scarpetta. A fractured past develops a need to discover the truth. Unlike the Americans, Giorgia has the ability to change based on what she learns. One gets the notion that a sequel to this film would feature an entirely different Giorgia, a less hard boiled woman who has evolved by displacing anger
with empathy.
“A certain Italian sense of humor pervades QUO VADIS, BABY?, mingling dark comedy in with the suspense. The comic moments make Giorgia’s
anguish more real and deliver her from the female detective stereotype. The film’s title is a line from Bernardo Bertolucci’s THE LAST TANGO IN PARIS; Salvatores augments the homage to classic film by integrating many scenes from Fritz Lang’s M into the story. The soundtrack employs two old favorites, Ultravox’s ‘Vienna’ and The Talking Heads ‘Psycho Killer.’ 3.5 cats
QUO VADIS, BABY? Was shown as part of the OPEN ROADS: NEW ITALIAN CINEMA festival at Lincoln Center.”