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Martin Eden is a marvelous, psychologically complex intellectual coming of age
drama from Italy about an impoverished man who is continually stepped on by
everyone. He decides to seize power and gains celebrity status plus literary
credibility in a negative way. See below for a link to the Music Box's Virtual
Theater, where the subtitled film is currently available for viewing.
In terms of the basic plotline, the film bears a slight similarity to Taxi
Driver, King of Comedy, and the recent
Joker film, but this film is much more
dialogue driven and has a completely different tone.
This is the second recent film that was based on a novel by Jack London (the
other one was Call of the Wild which starred Harrison Ford) Over a dozen of
London’s novels have been adapted into films including a silent version of
Martin Eden in 1914. The clever and engaging script was written by Maurizio
Braucci and the director. Both the film and novel are highly autobiographical
and the film’s antihero protagonist is a sailor with little formal education
(although the real London was highly educated) who wants to win over a rich
girl. But the film alters the time period and setting of the film from early
20th century California to later 20th century Naples. It is hard to say when
exactly the film takes place because the film uses time signifiers from
different decades like David Lynch's Blue Velvet.
Director
Pietro Marcello is mostly known for making documentaries
(he's made eight since 2005) but he also directed the well-received but little seen
drama: Lost and Beautiful. In Martin Eden he uses a combination of neorealist
and new wave techniques and the film comes off as a classic movie from the great
era of art films (1950-65) that we all somehow missed. Marcello incorporates
archival footage instead of traditional establishing shots which is highly
reminiscent of similar scenes in the 50s films of neorealist masters such as Vittorio De Sica, Giuseppi De Santis, Luchino Visconti, and Roberto Rossellini.
The story starts when a sailor named Martin happens upon a fight and he helps a
man defeat an attacker. The man he saves, Arturo, turns out to be rich and shows
his gratitude by inviting Martin to a dinner at his parents’ house. Martin is
impressed and transfixed by Arturo’s family’s extreme wealth and wishes he could
share in the good life. But even more importantly he meets Arturo’s beautiful
and cultured sister, Elena (played by Jessica Cressy) and he immediately falls
for her even though he is uncultured, and she must constantly correct his
grammar. He decides that he wants to read and learn as much as possible and
better himself so he can be worthy of her love.
She helps him along the way, and she teaches him all about Baudelaire’s poetry
among other things. After he reads more, and becomes immersed in a life of the
intellect, and he decides to become a writer. He gets tons of rejection letters
at first, and it becomes clear to most of the people around him that his writing
can’t support Elena’s lavish lifestyle. He may eventually have to choose between
the woman he loves (he is as obsessed with her as Gatsby was for Daisy) and his
vocation. His brother in law offers him a menial job and a way out of poverty,
but now that Martin has broadened his intellectual horizons, he sees the man as
a boor and the work as beneath him.
Eventually, Martin meets a hedonistic older poet named Brissenden (Carlo Cecchi)
who introduces him to a bohemian lifestyle (he is like an Italian version of a
beat writer). Brissendon helps to radicalize him and set him in the right
direction. He also begins to immerse himself in the writings of Herbert Spencer
and begins spouting evolutionary philosophy and begins the people too are
evolving. Martin learns the power of the written word and he starts to believe
in Nietzschean philosophy which goes directly against his mentor who is a
collectivist.
But when Martin gets his first taste of success, he for some reason finds it all
hollow (The protagonists’ in The Great Gatsby or American Beauty have similar
feelings when they achieved their goals .) He feels like he was pulled in two
directions between the working-class people he grew up and the “phonies” in the
upper class.
The film is an unexpectedly convincing and unflinching portrait of the birth of
a fascist mindset. Although viewers will sympathize with Martin up until a
certain point, they will no doubt be as horrified by the wrong turns he takes,
as I was, and they will recoil at the squandering of his great potential.
The film opened to great critical acclaim last year in Europe, and it was
selected to compete in the Golden Lion in the 76th Venice International Film
Festival. Also, Luca Marinelli (who was also in The Old Guard) won the Volpi Cup
there for Best Actor. I know there have been fewer releases in 2020,
but Luca’s broad, multi layered performance was the best I have seen so far this
year, and the film is also in the running (at least for me) for best film of the
year.
Although no one knows how well a work of art will age, upon first viewing,
Martin Eden sure feels like an instant classic.
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