By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Francesco Munzi
Starring: Aurélian Recoing | Constantin Lupescu | Giovanni Morina | Laura Vasiliu | Sandra Ceccarelli | Stefano Cassetti | Veronica Besa | Victor Cosma
Original language title: Il Resto della Notte
Country: italy
Year: 2008
Running time: 101
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1223971/
Bruce says: “THE REST OF THE NIGHT begins with Silvana (Sandra Ceccarelli) being attacked by gypsies. Visibly distraught she later behaves strangely during dinner with her husband and daughter when out of the blue she accuses the Eastern European maid, Maria, (Laura Vasiliu) of stealing her heirloom pearl earrings. The audience quickly gets Silvana’s number: a pampered, upper middle class housewife who can no longer cope with the role she has elected. She is a woman on the verge.
“To the film’s credit, the audience gets it dead wrong. Billed as a conflict of immigrants vs. the economically establishment, the tagline does not exactly true, either. All immigrants are not liars, killers or thieves nor are all middle class marriages fraught with boredom and deceit. What emerges from THE REST OF THE NIGHT is that jealousies, indifferences and animosities can be found in relationships across all classes.
“As the male immigrants Marco (Stefano Cassetti) and Jonuz (Constantin Lupescu) feed their drug habits, Maria returns to pick up where she left off before she disappeared to earn a respectable position if not a respectable wage. Jonuz has a new gun (we all know what that means) and Marco is making futile attempts to go straight and take care of his younger brother Victor (Victor Cosma). Silvana’s husband Giovanni (Aurélian Recoing) is having an affair with a young girl who worked in his office before he had her transferred to another location for discretionary purposes. Silvana’s daughter Anna (Veronica Besa) is embarking on her first affair with Davide (Giovanni Morina), a handsome boy from school. Like the recent Mexican film LA ZONA or several Chabrol films involving ennui and evil-doing among those in entitled classes, it is obvious that at least on corpse will materialize before the film is over. To that end, this film has a firm grasp of the obvious.
“Filmed in the desolate winter months, hopefully due to scheduling necessities or budgetary constraints as opposed to artistic choice, THE REST OF THE NIGHT is decidedly uncinematic and as visually interesting as a low-budget TV movie. In step with other gloomy, realistic contemporary Italian films, the decent acting and the suspenseful mood save the film. 2 1/2 cats
“THE REST OF THE NIGHT screened at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.”