‘Diciannove’ Review: A Colorful, Kinetic, and Molto Italiano Coming-Of-Age Tale
Oscillioscope Laboratories
In most parts of the world, the last two years of adolescence are typically overshadowed by the liberties that come with turning eighteen, the legal age of adulthood, obviously. This widespread presumption impresses upon children as they grow up that some magical transformation must ensue upon your eighteenth birthday, that the doorway to youth closes forever, and the entirety of adulthood lies ahead. As time passes and we all navigate the transitional period between adolescence and maturity, we come to realize that there is no guidebook to aid us on our journey.
In his feature-length directorial debut, Diciannove, writer-director Giovanni Tortorici fixes on a wandering youth, nineteen-year-old Leonardo (Manfredi Marini), who blunders through this temporal no-man's land, incapable of heeding the advice of those around him but unable to activate the person he wants to be on his own. Stylish and shifty, Diciannove operates as an arthouse answer to the tried-and-true coming-of-age saga.
Oscillioscope Laboratories
The year is 2015, and Leonardo, a year shy of entering his second decade, is leaving the sunny shores of his Palermo, Italy, hometown to study Economics in London. Arriving at his older sister's shared flat on the outskirts of the metropolis, the young Italian expats are ready for a wild night on the town, complete with boozing under flashing strobe lights and makeout sessions with strangers on the dance floor. Citing the youthful spirit of our protagonist, "If I hadn't puked at the end of the night, I wouldn't have had fun." As Leonardo, known to his family as "Lele," settles into London life (much grayer than the Italian vistas he is accustomed to), he quickly recognizes that this new path of studies and urban life abroad are not for him.
Cut to Leonardo arriving in the medieval Italian city of Siena, where he pivots his studies to Classical Literature. Leonardo is enamored with the city's compact streets and ancient architecture, submerging himself in Siena's loveliness as a way to connect with the country's writers he is so enchanted by, such as Dante and Manzoni. Leonardo begins his coursework, soon becoming bored with his lectures and opposed to the teachings of his professors, for whom he loses respect. The pretentious young man decides to forge his own path of learning, spending his weekly stipend from his parents on antique books, allowing his flat to fall into a state of disgusting disarray, and slowly retreating within himself. The more assertive Leonardo's ideas about the world become, the less he seems in control of bringing them to fruition outside of his head, leaving him increasingly sullen and confused about the surrounding world and his place within it.
As it tracks Leonardo, Diciannove curiously captures the pomposity of adolescence and the contradictions it brings forth. Through his contemplative nature and handsome appearance, figures are drawn to the young man; yet, his moody withdrawal into the books he adores leaves him unable —and unwilling —to connect with his flatmates and university colleagues. Caught up in his moral perceptions of the writers he obsesses over, Leonardo's romanticization of the molto Italian life he hopes to lead is imperiled by the forces of the contemporary world, particularly through the endless scrolling cycles on his phone that find him searching for Justin Bieber's nudes. Although Tortorici prefers only to skirt the peripheries of Leonardo's sexuality, the film's screenplay points to it being another element of the struggles he is figuring out.
Diciannove embraces the fluctuation of its coming-of-age themes through the bold stylization that fills every scene. The neon-light saturated kinetic energy of Leonardo's brief stay in London shifts into an elegant naturalism upon his arrival in Siena, complete with an operatic score to set the Italian mood. Then, as Leonardo's psyche begins its decline into melancholy, the director takes it even further with Dutch angles, hallucinatory scenes, and an animated dream sequence that truly compels the temerity of Tortorici's visions, creating a totally unique sensibility within a genre familiar to most.
Oscillioscope Laboratories
Once an assistant for Luca Guadagnino (who serves as a producer on Diciannove), Tortorici's spirited efforts on his feature debut prove he is a rising talent to watch, as are those of Marini, in his first acting performance after being cast from a vast pool of non-professionals. Filled to the brim with clashing energies reflective of its young protagonist, Diciannove powerfully embodies the challenges we experience in that complex position between childhood and adulthood that most of us face at age nineteen.
3.5/5
2024 | 1o9 mins | Italian, English, with English Subtitles | Color
‘Diciannove’ world premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival as part of the Orizzonti section. The film will be distributed in the United States by Oscillioscope Laboratories beginning Friday, July 25. Click here for more information about ‘Diciannove.’