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Moon Shadow

1995, Movie, NR, 82 mins

Moon Shadow: Review

MOON SHADOW | COLPO DI LUNA | LADDER TO THE MOON
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Science and sentiment go head to head in sunny Sicily in this touching, if cliched, Italian drama about the black holes of outer and inner space. Astrophysicist Lorenzo Lo Jacono (Tcheky Karyo), who studies radiation and black holes of the astral kind, travels to the Sicilian village of his childhood to sell off the crumbling family villa. He hires local handy man Salvatore (Nino Manfredi) to fix the gaping hole in his roof. While he finds Salvatore to be full of common sense and the kind of homespun wisdom that has nothing to do with science, Lorenzo is puzzled by Sal's assistants. Michele (Paolo Sassanelli) hears voices and is sure he's being watched; Filippo (Mimmo Mancini) dreams of becoming a singer. Lorenzo learns that they're both residents of a nearby group home for the mentally ill, a fact that makes him a little uncomfortable. As work on the villa slowly progresses, the group home's director (Johan Leyson) enlists Lorenzo's help in drawing out a troubled nymphomaniac (played by a disconcertingly alluring Isabelle Pasco). He reluctantly agrees, and as he becomes involved in life at the home — and the sad story of Salvatore and his own mentally ill son (Jim Van der Woude) — this man of science confronts the unresolved issues in his own heart. Writer-director Alberto Simone extends this head-heart dialectic to the treatment of the mentally ill themselves, portraying the group home as an effective, humanistic environment that succeeds because it focuses on individuals rather than illnesses. But even though each resident is given his or her own voice, and Simone doesn't shy away from their suffering, the film is ultimately unable to skirt certain cinematic cliches: Madness goes hand-in-hand with creativity, delusions can be funny, and the mentally ill are endlessly fascinated by rain. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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