Don Giovanni

Oppressive and intimate; the pressure truly dramatic, compressing gestures, words, looks and grimaces, acts, and relationships into a suffocating and concentrated expression within the backdrop of a pompous classical opera squeezed into dark claustrophobic scenes without light, without a sky - Giovanni's tomb of empty desires, the tomb of empty religious sanctity of the young "saint." "By using simple contrasts, he captures the tragic intensity of our presence on earth." = Giovanni's triangle, holy daughter, and the true main protagonist of the film - the desperate mother with a tormented but beautiful gaze, forced to experience the film like Daedalus escaping from Crete: witnessing her child fall after trying to fly too high, falling into the natural depths, the alluring depths of Don Giovanni's animality, and being torn in both directions - that is, to live. Alongside his acting virtuosity, Bene once again demonstrates an art of filmmaking that far surpasses the majority of people in the field - editing, assembly, editing - coincidences of relationships, merging of gazes, and evoking emotions and impressions by sudden and simple manifestation of the absent. (06.07.2016)