The value of human life
Film & TV
Based on the novel, Human Capital, by US author and film critic Stephen Amidon, Italian director Paulo Virzi has created a multi-award winning film, taking out five major Italian prizes. And rumour has it that it will also be listed among the Best Foreign Language Films at the 2015 Oscars.
Set in the early 2000s in the aftermath of the European economic crash, when a person’s worth is measured Euros, Human Capital is about the events leading up to a hit and run collision between a cyclist and an unknown driver on a wet winter night in the north of Italy, and follows the intertwined relationships and circumstances between two families of different social standing.
Human Capital is labelled a ‘thriller’, but there’s nothing chilling or extreme in the film lending it to that genre; with its presentation of human relationships and theme of desire, the film is much more a suspenseful drama.
Broken into four parts, the plot unfolds from the differing perspectives of each of the main characters.
Dino (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is a middle-class businessman who secretly mortgages his house in order to impress the rich father of his daughter’s boyfriend by buying into his hedge fund. Little does he know his daughter Serena (Matilde Gioli) has dumped the spoilt Massimiliano (Guglielmo Pinelli) for a troubled artist who happens to be in therapy with his pregnant wife.
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Carla (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) is the beautiful, but bored, middle-aged mother of Massimiliano who gave up her career as an actress for the security of a rich husband. Carla enjoys a fortunate life, but turns a blind eye to her husband, Giovanni’s (Fabrizio Gifune) business dealings.
After the accident, a web of deception is gradually revealed up to the film’s gripping finale. You could try guessing who did what to who, why and where it will all end, but the film takes some surprising twists and turns.
Being an Italian film, there’s not too much that’s unattractive to look at, though the English subtitles can be a little distracting from the excellent cinematography and the ‘music’ of the lovely language. However the thread of suspense interwoven with moral dilemma adds substance.
Overall Human Capital is an elegant and supremely satisfying film.
Human Capital is screening at Trak Cinemas and Palace Nova East End.
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