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The Italian (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 94
Fresh: 86
Rotten:8
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Consensus: Poignant and unforgettable, The Italian stands out from other European melodramas. Like its extraordinary child lead, this Russian drama about an orphan's search for his birth mother is small in size and monumental in pathos.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for some violence, sexual content, language and thematic issues
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Theatrical Release:Jan 19, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Despite the title, THE ITALIAN is actually a Russian film set at a bleak orphanage in rural Russia. The story opens when six-year-old Vanya Solntsev (Kolya Spiridonov) is introduced to an Italian... Despite the title, THE ITALIAN is actually a Russian film set at a bleak orphanage in rural Russia. The story opens when six-year-old Vanya Solntsev (Kolya Spiridonov) is introduced to an Italian couple who are hoping to adopt a child. Vanya is a handsome, bright-eyed little boy, and the couple takes an instant liking to him, agreeing to give him a home. It is quite clear to the other children, and to little Vanya, that he is in an extremely enviable position. The adoption by the Italians will take Vanya away from the miserable conditions of the orphanage, where the teenagers run a mini-Mafia, taking candy from the children and doling out beatings whenever anyone withholds money from them. Vanya is nervous, though accepting of his fate, until the mother of another orphan comes to reclaim her son, and she is told he has already been adopted. After she is forced off the premises, the woman commits suicide. When Vanya learns of this, he is desperate to find out whether or not his own real mother is still out there. But the greedy adoption agent, known as "Madam" (Maria Kuznetsova), is determined to give Vanya to the Italians, who will pay her a generous sum for him. With the help of another orphan, Vanya makes his escape. He sets off for the address of the orphanage where his mother first left him, hoping to find some answers. While the plot of the ITALIAN may be small-scale, it packs an enormous emotional punch, and Spiridonov's performance is heartbreaking in its realism. The sight of the little boy racing through the grubby streets is reminiscent of another Italian, the round-cheeked Bruno of THE BICYCLE THIEF. Like little Bruno, Vanya will make your heart race with horror and hope, as he struggles to grasp the harsh realities of the adult world. [More]
Starring: Denis Moiseenko, Kolya Spiridonov, Sasha Sirotkin, Andrei Yelizarov
Starring: Denis Moiseenko, Kolya Spiridonov, Sasha Sirotkin, Andrei Yelizarov, Vladimir Shipov, Mariya Kuznetsova, Yuri Itskov
Director: Andrey Kravchuk
Director: Andrey Kravchuk
Producer: Andrei Zertsalov
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
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Reviews for The Italian
With a tensed brow, Kolya Spiridonov plays a boy perpetually hovering between anxiety and dogged determination, and the film walks the same line, unsure about where it's going but always moving forward regardless.
Vividly characterised and convincingly acted (not least by Spiridonov), it makes for a fascinating portrait of a post-Communist society beset by crime and despair.
Vividly characterised and convincingly acted (not least by Spiridonov), it makes for a fascinating portrait of a post-Communist society beset by crime and despair.
A stunningly powerful indictment of the weakest in thrall to a corrupt system.
An unsentimental and vividly characterized film which successfully combines melodrama and social analysis and features an impressive central performance from Spiridonov.
Andrei Kravchuk’s film is sensitive to the hilt and pleasingly attuned to the guileless outlook of its hero.
Despite channeling Dickensian melodrama, first-time director Andrei Kravchuk skilfully avoids wallowing in sentimentality.
This 2005 story about a Russian boy whose mother has given him up may be derivative, but it's still engrossing, largely because of its appealing juvenile lead, Kolya Spiridonov.
It's a touching film about a little boy with the determination of a champ.
It is hard-hitting, but with none of the fake, over-the-top violence of Hollywood fare, and packs an emotional punch without dredging it with sugar.
What really makes this potentially melodramatic story so powerful is the incredibly intense and focused presence of little Kolya Spiridonov, who makes you believe Vanya's determination and grit every step of the way.
Like Vittorio De Sica, one of the great Italian neo-realists, Kravchuk populates his film with people, not paradigms; his characters are capable of good and evil, sometimes in equal measure.
It is about love, family, and the power of kindness to overcome the cruelty in the world.
There are shocking and heartbreaking moments scattered throughout The Italian, but [director] Kravchuk approaches them with a nonjudgmental, observational style that avoids most of the pitfalls of melodrama.
A throwback to neo-realist filmmaking . . . snowballs in emotion until later scenes are stomach-knotting in their tension. The film largely avoids sentiment with its muted score and shadowed close-ups.
This film is about many things, but the magic key that unlocks the treasure chest is literacy.
Latest News for The Italian
April 28, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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January 18, 2007:
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