03/09/2023 - VENICE 2023: Saverio Costanzo regales us with a personal and clever cinematic variation on selected themes from the films of Federico Fellini

Joe Keery, Rebecca Antonaci and Willem Dafoe in Finally Dawn

In Finally Dawn [+see also:
trailer
interview: Saverio Costanzo
film profile], playing in competition at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, director-screenwriter Saverio Costanzo takes us to the early days of the Italian post-war financial boom, also revisited in another 2023 Venice competitor, Michael Mann’s Ferrari [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valentina Bellè
film profile], exploring the vibrant Italian automobile industry of the late 1950s. A veritable Phoenix risen from the ashes of World War II, the period is legendary for its cultural and economic wonders, as well as that hedonistic lifestyle referred to as la dolce vita.

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Finally Dawn dives headlong into the latter, kicking off in a Cinecittà setting, very reminiscent of the opening of the Federico Fellini episode of Boccaccio ’70, where an American sword-and-sandal epic (gloriously terrible, by the look of things) is being shot amid great hustle and bustle. Costumed extras scurry about among stressed crew members, an audition line of pretty ladies gets ready, willing and able to convince the casting directors. One of them, the vivacious Iris (Sofia Panizzi), has been spotted in a cinema and encouraged to show up; in tow is her stern mother (Carmen Pomella) and younger sister Mimosa (Rebecca Antonaci), a timid but deeply starstruck movie lover.

In no time, all three lose sight of each other in the hubbub. The shy Mimosa, by freak chance, gets singled out by the film’s female lead, glamorous Hollywood star Josephine Esperanto (Lily James), to act as her main handmaiden in the film, co-starring another US actor, Sean Lockwood (Joe Keery), one of Mimosa’s silver-screen obsessions. The wonders don’t stop there; the same evening, Mimosa is bundled into a car by Josephine and Sean, and is driven off for some true dolce vita activities, which, come that proverbial dawn, will turn her decidedly less timid, possibly also a bit less starstruck. The Fellini universe remains omnipresent throughout, with strong echoes of The White Sheik and certainly La Dolce Vita. Also referred to is the authentic and unsolved 1953 murder of aspiring movie extra Wilma Montesi, a case with direct connections to the wild parties of Roman high society – which, in turn, greatly inspired Fellini in its day.

That said, Finally Dawn is not a Fellini copy (nor is it a Sorrentino one). More accurately, the film could sport the sub-heading “A personal cinematic variation on selected themes from the films of Federico Fellini”. And a clever one, at that. As he admirably displayed in the My Brilliant Friend [+see also:
series review
series profile] miniseries, director Costanzo has a good knack for nailing the look, feel and almost smell of these bygone years, clearly standing on his own. Among an ensemble of big-name actors, also including Willem Dafoe and Alba Rohrwacher (as none other than Alida Valli), newcomer Rebecca Antonaci more than fits the bill. An award or two could well be coming her way in the days to come – the one for young actors with “Mastroianni” in its name feeling particularly appropriate, and why not?

Finally Dawn was produced by Italy’s Wildside, Fremantle and RAI Cinema. Its international sales have been entrusted to FilmNation Entertainment.

Photogallery 01/09/2023: Venice 2023 - Finally Dawn

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Saverio Costanzo, Rebecca Antonaci, Anna Ribeiro, Michele Bravi, Alba Rohrwacher
© 2023 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it