It
is sort of like an Italian Cheers, but nobody knows the name of the quiet, Mephistophelean
man who always sits in the corner table. If you are there to see him, you must
be desperate, but the deals he offers never bring peace of mind. If this sounds
familiar, then perhaps you remember
Christopher
Kubasik’s two-season FX television show, The
Booth at the End, which Paolo Genovese been remade as an Italian one-shot
feature. Fans of the source show will find it translated surprisingly smoothly
when Genovese’s The Place (trailer here) screens during Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2018.
He
sits in “The Place” (this time around, it really is more of a café than a
diner), where he drinks a lot of coffee, a little bit of whiskey, and lets the
despairing sign away their souls. All day long, people ask for miracles, but he
gives them Faustian bargains. One old woman wants to cure her husband’s Alzheimer’s.
To do that, she must place a bomb somewhere where it is sure to kill a certain number
of people. Hers is probably the most extreme case, but not by much. To save his
son, one man must kill another innocent child. Rather nefariously, “The Man” sends
another favor-seeker on a mission to protect the girl he is stalking.
The
thing of it is, The Man at the corner table is by far the most interesting character
in the film (and several others are quite compelling). We never get any of his
backstory or any real explanation, but we quickly get the impression he takes
no pleasure from any of this mayhem. He is a cosmic middle man—perhaps even a
reluctant one, whose hands are tied by the mysterious notebook he frequently
consults. Angela, who works the swing and graveyard shifts can’t figure him
out, but he rather uncharacteristically seems to enjoy her efforts to crack his
code.
Frankly,
it is pretty darned impressive how successfully Genovese boils down the first season
of Booth into a tight, taut feature. It
will hold viewers rapt by its spell for one hour and forty-five minutes, yet
you will probably have no desire to go catch-up with the two seasons of Booth (even though it stars the ever
reliable Xander Berkeley), because you will feel like you have seen it in its
essence.
Genovese
puts a lot on the cast’s shoulders, because he retains the original show’s
minimalist technique of unfolding all of the narrative developments in conversations
with the Man, but they bear it smashingly, particularly Valerio Mastandrea, who
is wonderfully subtle as the Man himself. Throughout the entire film, he has
the audience guessing whether he is the monster many favor-seekers think him to
be, or the lonely, world-weary man Angela assumes he is. He is also perfectly counter-balanced
by Sabrina Ferilli as the warm and down-to-earth Angela. You can see why anyone
would guzzle java at her late-night café. The
Place is also frequented by at least half a dozen other top Italian thesps,
such as Alba Rohwacher (I Am Love, Hungry Hearts) and Marco Giallini, who are all working at the top of their
respective games.
The Place is not exactly a
thriller per se, but it turns a couple of twists that are real game-changers.
As a remake of a somewhat known American property, The Place will probably be a tough sell for theatrical distribution,
which is a shame, because it is a prime example of super-slick, ultra-grabby
filmmaking. Very highly recommended, The
Place screens twice this Thursday (5/31) at the Walter Reade, as part of
this year’s Open Roads.
