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The Starmaker

1995, Movie, R, 117 mins

STARMAKER, THE | L'UOMO DELLE STELLE
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Fast-talking con man Joe Morelli (Sergio Castellitto) wanders the post-WWII Sicilian countryside with an army surplus movie camera and a sideshow the likes of which the rubes have never seen. In a tent festooned with movie-star stills, Morelli displays his mysterious machinery and holds out the promise of a glamorous and lucrative career in the cinema. There's just a small matter of 5,000 lire -- a fortune to poverty-stricken villagers -- and an audition is theirs. Giuseppe Tornatore returns to the golden tones in which his CINEMA PARADISO was bathed, evoking a world of smugly sentimental, achingly false nostalgia. But instead of wallowing in mawkish self-congratulation, this film pretends to serious concerns: It's about man's degradation in a soul-destroying world and the hope of redemption offered by the love of a pure woman -- in this case an overripe, convent-raised half-wit who thinks her mother is the Virgin Mary. Spare us. leave a comment
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