Il maestro di lingue (first feature)

original title:

Il maestro di lingue

directed by:

cast:

Maurizio Modesti, Maurizio Torti, Mara Fraticelli, Maurilio Breccolenti, Maurizio Maurizi, Daniele Bartoli, Michele Biancalana, Rosy Ruggiero

cinematography:

Moreno Carlini

editing:

Gioele Neddia

music:

Paolo Ciacci

producer:

Federico Castagner, Daniele Villa, Paolo Alessandro Lombardi

production:

country:

Italy

year:

2009

film run:

95'

format:

colour

release date:

31/12/2009

This intriguing and surprising story is a pleasant and humorous thriller, light and goliardic in the first part but violent and full of tension in the second. It is a real challenge for the spectator who is continually disorientated by facts, engrossed and off-tracked right up to its startling epilogue by realistic characters who move within the city where the author lives and works. The scenario of the film is narrated by the voice of a man who is seeking a story for a thriller book he wants to write and inadvertently becomes involved in a crime-case investigation. The protagonist is a person who is bored by his life and daily routine as the owner of a shoe shop. The long endless days bring him to unearth his old dream of writing a noir novel, despite numerous past failures. This time, however, he is struck by an intuition that the moment could be right as a series of crimes are being perpetrated in his city and it is his old friend Marco Giacchera who is responsible for their investigation. With macabre irony the serial killer is given the name of "the Master of tongues" because the killer's ritual is that of removing the tongues of victims who apparently have nothing in common with each other. The killer is arrogant and challenges the police by leaving his fingerprints and provoking the investigators. The aspirant writer pays for his curiosity when he is seen on the scene of a crime in the company of his investigator friend and as a consequence he is transformed from a simple observer into a point of interest for someone. It is with staggering surprise that day after day the events evolve in the lives of the protagonists, pieces of the puzzle being put together so as to arrive at the solution of the mystery and the end of the story. Or maybe not.... The narrative style and the audience. The film is essential, light and flowing as it tells the story of a series of crimes perpetrated by a sick mind, without falling into excess. It wishes neither to leave any message behind nor to contain any metaphors, but just to be a subtle, dramatic and involving tale. It is a film of convulsive and relieving moments, effective images with the desire to entertain. The film is directed towards a wide audience. The choice of the city where the story takes place is that of the book written in 2004, and filming started almost two years before the tragic well-known events of Perugia. However, this city has in its streets, squares and buildings an atmosphere appropriate to the collocation of a noir, along with what we might consider humorous and unreal aspects. It is through narration that the audience will get to know, one after the other, the various episodes of the story and will live them through the eyes of a direct witness.