This documentary film is a portrait of a film critic as seen by a filmmaker. While contemporary cinema manipulates reality by hiding itself, this experiment manifests the opposite in an explicit and evident way. The film critic has been asked to travel to the city of Bergamo to participate in a 70-minute film experiment: savoring 2 kg of oysters and drinking 2 bottles of wine, while simultaneously answering 15 general knowledge questions and 15 solicitations of a private and personal nature. The outcome is a ruinous game in which the meaning of filming and the fragility of a human being merge into a melancholic testament.

Note di regia

The film was shot in a long take on May 15, 2022 at the Mutual Aid Theater in Casnigo in the mountain province of Bergamo. Domenico Monetti is a well-known film critic from Rome. He was asked to travel to the city of Bergamo to participate in a 70-minute film experiment: savoring 2 kg of oysters while simultaneously drinking 2 bottles of wine. He was also asked to answer 30 questions of which he would not be made aware: 15 cultural questions about lacunae or apices of some ancient masters, and 15 solicitations of a private and personal nature.
To manage the sequence of the 30 plastic balls containing the questions, which dictates the timing and thus also the editing of the film, the director involved, Vincenzo Turca, an old acquaintance of his and already a silent actor in 2 of his previous works, who in his sole discretion coordinated the rhythm of the narrative by randomly drawing the balls. The 2 actors had in fact agreed that Domenico Monetti would completely interrupt his speech as soon as Vincenzo Turca brought a new ball to the table. Wrapped in the obituary page of the local newspaper l’Eco di Bergamo and hidden in the pocket of Vincenzo Turca, a last terminal black ball is designed to finish the whole experiment and therefore the film with an extremely intimate and personal question intended to close the rant.
To complement the main 70-minute long take, Luca Sorgato filmed 7 counter-shots on September 10, 2022, with the participation of three persons: the stoker Stefano Burroni, the aesthete Annamaria Poma Swank and her friend Antonella Burroni.
By virtue of a rigid and spontaneous structure in which the director is no longer necessary during the very act of filming because he had everything planned in advance, the film unfolds in an unexpected and surprising way, allowing all the people involved and the work itself to manifest in an unpredictable, playful and destructive cacophony.