Ray Pride

(Io Non Ha Paura) Gabriele Salvatore's lyrical dead-of-summer thriller from a boy's point-of-view in an Italian rural village is dead-on terrific. Without resorting to voice-over, a recurrent tic of movies following the inner lives of children, Salvatore suggests childhood as a time where the coming of awareness costs dearly. Ten-year-old Michele (the gifted Giuseppe Cristiano) and his small sister while away the end of a deceptively picturesque season, and the beauty of Italo Petriccione cinematography suggests more than the surface metaphor of childhood's end, something eternal that grows more burnished in memory. The look's not nostalgic, but instead one that aches with the sensation that something is coming to an end. That something is innocence, when Michele discovers a boy his own cowering in a pit near an abandoned farm, a captive who takes him for his "guardian angel." How can Michele tell his recently returned father about his strange new friend who fears sunlight and raccoons? And how would he face it if papa were one of the bad guys? Memorable in its own right, "I'm Not Scared" is also a lovely rendition of Niccolo Ammaniti's taut novel, keeping honorably to the point-of-view of Michelle, and the insistent, strings-heavy score by Ezio Bosso and Pepo Scherman is more affecting than one would might expect. 108m.

"I'm Not Scared" opens Friday at Esquire, Landmark Century and Evanston Century.

(2004-04-22)

Also by Ray Pride

Tip of the Week
The movie's narcotic rhythms and repetitions and sudden bursts of beauty, in composition, music, gesture and perspective are gratifying throughout
(2004-04-14)

Interminable cruelty
More and more, I'm thinking of the megamegalo Quentin Tarantino as an advertising man, and not just one with a single client who dubs himself "Q."
(2004-04-14)

Short Runs
This week's limited screenings
(2004-04-14)

Tip of the Week
Turkish writer-producer-director-cinematographer Nuri Bilge Ceylan's 2002 Cannes-prize-winning "Distant" (Uzak) is a memorably intimate exploration of closed-off personalities
(2004-04-09)

Disremembering the Alamo
(2004-04-09)

Short Runs
(2004-04-09)

Parton me
(2004-03-31)

Ordinary people
(2004-03-31)

Short Runs
(2004-03-31)

Tip of the Week
(2004-03-30)

Tip of the Week
(2004-03-25)

Chatty Bob
(2004-03-25)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment