La Gradiva

From Viennale

A group of Parisian high school students travel with their Latin teacher Madame Mercier to Naples. They are boisterous, carefree, garrulous, yet also remarkably astute; when they chatter about sex, racism or politics, their words carry weight. They react with the same mixture of seriousness and frivolity to the passionate presentations Mercier gives at the sites they visit: the Roman fresco showing a Dionysian initiation, the peak of Mount Vesuvius from which the steam still rises, the cast of the woman’s body captured at the very moment of her death in Pompeii. Italy has a way of getting under the skin, just like it did back in VIAGGIO IN ITALIA (1953), and tension, disquiet and new urges soon seep into the group and each of its members in turn, although there are no redeeming miracles here and the photos of the past are not as romantic as they might seem. Suzanne struggles with her ample intelligence and her apparent lack of beauty and James tries to sail through everything based on his looks, class and charm, but Toni is the most troubled soul here, the weed, the Grindr dates and the snarky comments just so much deflection. Growing up can seem a grubby business, but that’s not how it was. Beautiful things will still be said and not everything is dirty. (James Lattimer)