Diciannove (transl. Nineteen) is a 2024 Italian-British coming-of-agedrama film directed by Giovanni Tortorici in his feature directorial debut. Starring newcomer Manfredi Marini, it follows a restless 19-year-old student on his journey of self-discovery. It premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on 30 August 2024.
Premise
Leonardo, a 19-year-old student, leaves his hometown of Palermo to study economics in London. He soon grows restless and enrolls at the University of Siena to study literature before dropping out of school to study classics on his own. The following year, he travels to Turin to continue his journey of self-discovery.
Cast
Manfredi Marini as Leonardo Gravina
Vittoria Planeta as Arianna Gravina, Leonardo's sister
The film is loosely autobiographical, with some elements taken directly from director Giovanni Tortorici's life.[1] He stated:
I was born in Palermo, Sicily. When I was 18 I moved to England because, just like in the movie, I planned to study business. Then I changed my mind – again, just like the movie – and I went to Siena to study literature because I was very passionate about literature. . . . Then at a certain point, I started to think that I wanted to tell stories with cinema, with images. So I left the literature university and I went to a film school in Turin.
Tortorici met fellow Sicilian Luca Guadagnino while working as an assistant director on Guadagnino's 2020 miniseriesWe Are Who We Are. Tortorici later showed Guadagnino his script for Diciannove, and Guadagnino loved it so much that he offered to produce the film.[2] Manfredi Marini, who plays Leonardo, was selected for the role via open castings.[3][4]
From left to right: Dana Giuliano, Zackari Delmas, Giovanni Tortorici, Manfredi Marini, and Vittoria Planeta at the 81st Venice International Film Festival in 2024
Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave the film a B+, writing, "Giovanni Tortorici's feature directorial debut is a creative shape-shifter, but once this Luca Guadagino-produced feature finally snaps into focus, it becomes something much more exciting."[13]
Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Diciannove is unflinchingly honest about what it's like to be 19, and, for the most part, totally lost. And Tortorici's insistence on capturing that feeling while avoiding the usual narrative tropes is what makes his film both fascinating and somewhat impenetrable."[14] Guy Lodge of Variety called the film "a vivid, humane evocation of what it's like to be 19 years old, with the world at your feet and over your head".[15]
Simone Emiliani of Mymovies.it gave the film three-and-a-half out of five stars, calling it a "bold and decidedly convincing debut where even its limitations make it even more electrifying".[16] Lorenzo Ciofani of Cinematografo.it also gave the film three-and-a-half out of five stars, writing that "Giovanni Tortorici's first work is a disturbing seminar on the youth of a student who loves the literature of the past and does not know what to do in the present".[17] Camillo De Marco of Cineuropa called the film "light-hearted, provocative, asyntactic".[18]
Martina Barone of GQ Italia called the film "a courageous and arrogant debut" and wrote, "If the university years are the same ones in which one experiments the most, so with his debut feature film Giovanni Tortorici decides that it is right to try to be everything and its exact opposite, to have a well-defined character, but at the same time to be able to allow oneself to try, improvise and even make mistakes. Those who have never made a mistake at nineteen have never had the opportunity to grow up, so it is fun to watch a film so openly repulsive, so obsessively focused on not pleasing anyone...."[19]
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