Nostalgia | Little White Lies

Nos­tal­gia

16 Feb 2023 / Released: 17 Feb 2023

Close-up of a man with a beard and curly hair, lit by warm light from the window behind him, against a dark background.
Close-up of a man with a beard and curly hair, lit by warm light from the window behind him, against a dark background.
3

Anticipation.

All looks a bit gloomy from the outset…

4

Enjoyment.

Absorbing after you’ve made it through the first 20 minutes.

3

In Retrospect.

Frustrating, but would love to see a spin-off series about Don Luigi’s divinely inspired quest for vengeance.

After 40 years away, a man returns to his home­town of Naples and dis­cov­ers venge­ful spir­its in Mario Mar­tone’s crime drama.

Naples’ vio­lent crime syn­di­cate the Camor­ra casts a large shad­ow in the city’s lit­er­a­ture – and Mario Martone’s Nos­tal­gia, based on a 2016 nov­el by Erman­no Rea, is full of ruth­less moped-rid­ing spec­tres. Felice, played by Pier­francesco Favi­no, returns to Naples after spend­ing 40 years in in Lebanon and Egypt to find that his moth­er has grown old and his home has become alien to him. He stum­bles with the vol­canic gut­turals of the Neapoli­tan dialect, for­get­ting words and strug­gling to explain himself.

His dis­place­ment, and the dan­ger that is crawl­ing up from the past, is com­mu­ni­cat­ed beau­ti­ful­ly both through Favino’s expres­sive face and Pao­lo Carnera’s cin­e­matog­ra­phy. The cam­era dwells omi­nous­ly and at dis­con­cert­ing angles on the sal­low light of stair­wells, peel­ing walls and dodgy elec­tri­cal wiring.

The film, slow at first, gets into gear with the intro­duc­tion of social jus­tice priest Don Lui­gi (Francesco Di Leva) to whom Felice makes a ter­ri­ble con­fes­sion that explains why he lingers in the city. Flash­backs, sepia-tint­ed, appear more fre­quent­ly as the sto­ry pro­gress­es, and it becomes clear that Oreste, Felice’s child­hood friend, is now a griz­zly, much-feared Camor­ra boss known as Badman.

The feel­ing of nos­tal­gia is per­haps over­stressed, and the pac­ing is odd. But the ten­sion cre­at­ed as fool­ish Felice drifts into a trap of his own mak­ing is mag­net­ic, even if the hor­ri­bly-ever-after is infu­ri­at­ing­ly predictable.

Lit­tle White Lies is com­mit­ted to cham­pi­oning great movies and the tal­ent­ed peo­ple who make them.

By becom­ing a mem­ber you can sup­port our inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism and receive exclu­sive essays, prints, month­ly film rec­om­men­da­tions and more.

You might like

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.