• About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
      Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
    • CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
      CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
    • WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
      WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • Why Art Basel is partially responsible for Miami’s gentrification
      Why Art Basel is partially responsible for Miami’s gentrification
    • It’s time to put traditional grading to the test
      It’s time to put traditional grading to the test
    • What can the fall of Z-library teach us about textbook accessibility?
      What can the fall of Z-library teach us about textbook accessibility?
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • No image
      Pentimento’s Open Mic is Like an Old Patchwork Quilt–Worn, Yet Cozy
    • No image
      Kanye’s Antisemitism Steps on his Shoe Brand
    • Lousy Realities: Luca Guadagnino (2015)
      Lousy Realities: Luca Guadagnino (2015)
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
    • Books Before Boys
  • Sports and Wellness
    • Student-Athlete of October
      Student-Athlete of October
    • Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
      Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
    • The Case for Body Neutrality
      The Case for Body Neutrality
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • The Wellesley Snooze
    • Top 10 Girlbosses who aren’t alumnae, but I would totally believe you if you told me they were
      Top 10 Girlbosses who aren’t alumnae, but I would totally believe you if you told me they were
    • Wendy Wellesley’s Thanksgiving Menu
      Wendy Wellesley’s Thanksgiving Menu
    • The Snooze Awards for the Best Tanners of 2022
      The Snooze Awards for the Best Tanners of 2022
  • Miscellanea
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
      Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
    • 50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
      50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Alice Ascoli Arts, Lousy Realities, ReviewsFebruary 9, 2022

Lousy Realities: a new film column

Il cinema non serve a niente, però ti distrae dalla realtà. La realtà è scadente. – The Hand of God (2021), Paolo Sorrentino 

It’s 1984. Two brothers — Fabietto and Marchino — are wandering, almost aimlessly, through Naples’ serpentine roads. In just moments, Marchino will pronounce a sentence that, while initially  incomprehensible to young Fabietto, will return to him years later with a newfound force, a force that carries the taste of trauma, of loss and, at the same time, of epiphany: “cinema is useless, but it can distract you from reality… reality is lousy.”  

When I heard those precise words from the theater’s audio system, I was watching the 8:30 a.m.  screening of Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” at the Venice Film Festival — in and of itself a dream that had, due to a series of yet unexplainable coincidences, somehow materialized — and I felt as though I had been stripped naked. Marchino was talking to Fabietto, of course, but he was also talking to me. And, most likely, to everyone else in the theater. Marchino was exposing me. Marchino was exposing the sense of perpetual disorientation that has accompanied me for as long as I can remember; the desire to seek order and meaning and definition to the unclean margins of life, and, for many of us, the source of our soothing from, as Sorrentino himself would say, “the unease of existing in the world” — that is, cinema. 

Which brings me here. I’m Alice. Almost nine years ago, I moved to Boston from my native Rome.  I’ve lived between the two cities ever since (if we choose to ignore the two years my family and I  spent in Las Vegas … but that’s a whole other story) with all the psychological effects and identity  

crises that an adolescence divided into two (or three) could bring and that, surely, almost all  Wellesley students feel or have come to feel themselves. I guess you could call this a film column,  a column about film, a column about international film or a column written by a confused  Biochemistry major and English minor that is currently studying abroad in England with a career deviating obsession with film, or, ultimately, anything you’d like. Whatever you may choose, you’ll  find it in every edition of The Wellesley News and it’ll cover all ages of international cinema, from  classics to the very latest projects. 

For now, I thought I’d call the column “Lousy Realities,” a title which, I believe, requires no further  explanation. To return to Sorrentino, non vi disunite. “Don’t come undone.” 

Tags

FilmHand of GodItalian Film

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articlePortrait of the Artist and the Audience in Anna Marie Tendler’s “Rooms in the First House”
Next articleThe WWII Little Women retelling that made me cry the whole way through (Books Before Boys review)

You may also like

Pentimento’s Open Mic is Like an Old Patchwork Quilt–Worn, Yet Cozy

Kanye’s Antisemitism Steps on his Shoe Brand

Lousy Realities: Luca Guadagnino (2015)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

Sorry. No data so far.

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2023 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top