FILMS/
ONE HUNDRED NAILS
Centochiodi
World Cinema
Italy, 2007, 92 minutes
SHOWTIMES
Fri, Apr 25 / 6:30 / PFA / ONE25P
Sat, Apr 26 / 4:15 / Kabuki / ONE26K
Sun, Apr 27 / 7:00 / Kabuki / ONE27K
Mon, Apr 28 / 5:00 / Kabuki / ONE28K
CREDITS
- dir
-
Ermanno Olmi
- prod
-
Luigi Musini, Roberto Cicutto
- scr
-
Ermanno Olmi
- cam
-
Fabio Olmi
- editor
-
Paolo Cottignola
- mus
-
Fabio Vacchi
- cast
-
Raz Degan, Luna Bendandi, Amina Syed, Michele Zattara, Damiano Scaini
- source
-
IntraMovies, Via E. Manfredi 15, 00197 Rome, Italy. FAX: +39068076156. EMAIL: f.mei@intramovies.com
In what he declares will be his last narrative feature, celebrated Italian filmmaker Ermanno Olmi (Palme d’Or winner for 1978’s The Tree of Wooden Clogs) presents a sort of summary statement of his more than 50-year career. Searching, deeply felt and sure to be controversial, One Hundred Nails sets the director’s humanistic Italian neorealism and a personal interpretation of Christian faith against both the distancing nature of religious orthodoxy and the value of knowledge in books versus direct experience. A philosophy professor (Raz Deglan) grappling with the written word’s disengagement from everyday life does Martin Luther five better by nailing 100 priceless religious texts to the floor of his university’s theological library. He then drives off, soon ditching his leather jacket and convertible BMW, to live in an abandoned building on the banks of the Po River and engage the world directly. His easy and rewarding bond with the local townsfolk (who razzingly call him Jesus) seems to suggest he’s made the right move, but real world difficulties and the repercussions of his crime soon encroach, and the philosophical questions posed by the film come to the fore. Deglan gives the professor just the right sense of conviction tinted with the doubt born of a life interrogating the “truth.” Meanwhile the charming, largely nonprofessional cast and lovely location shooting further the case for the necessity and pleasure of escaping the library (or the film set) and getting out into the world—and simultaneously herald Olmi’s avowed aim of hereafter focusing exclusively on documentary filmmaking.
—Steve Mockus
Sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute, San Francisco.
