The Handsome Priest (, ) is a 1989 coming-of-age drama film co-written and directed by Carlo Mazzacurati. A co-production between Italy and France, it premiered at the 46th Venice International Film Festival, in the Venice International Film Critics' Week sidebar.
Plot
Cast Massimo Santelia as Sergio Davide Torsello as Cena Roberto Citran as Don Gastone Adriana Asti as Immacolata Jessica Forde as Fedora Marco Messeri as Nello Pannocchieschi Amy Werba as Sergio's mother Raoul Billerey as Sergio's grandfather Antonio Petrocelli as Tiziano Silvana De Santis as Camilla Brigenti Luisa De Santis as Wanda Brigenti Sergio Vastano as Brusanti
Production The film is based on the novel Il prete bello by Goffredo Parise. It was shot in the early 1989 in nine weeks between Vicenza and its surrounding area. The roles of Sergio and Cena required four months of auditions, with about 18,000 children being auditioned. It had a budget of about 3 billion lire.
Release The film premiered in the Venice International Film Critics' Week sidebar at the 46th edition of the Venice Film Festival.
Reception A contemporary Variety review described the film as "a hymn to friendship and the golden age of childhood, [...] which trusts on emotion in the place of realism."Yung. (27 September 1989). "II prete bello - The Handsome Priest". Variety Film Reviews, Vol. 21. Bowler. p. 295. La Stampa'''s film critic Lietta Tornabuoni described the film as characterized by "a terse style, often punctuated by humorous moments, as tender and subdued as a childhood memory", and noted: "whilst Carlo Mazzacurati’s debut film, Italian Night, was more personal, intriguing and unusual, The Handsome Priest'' demonstrates his growth as a director in terms of style, command of the material and visual choices." In a retrospective analysis, Laura Rascaroli argued the film "shows some progress towards Mazzacurati's reappropriation of his native landscape, but the aestheticized result was still far from the authentic yet idiosyncratic perspective of his later films."
References
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