Synopsis
Purehearted teen Lazzaro is content living as a sharecropper in rural Italy, but an unlikely friendship with the marquise’s son will change his world.
2018 ‘Lazzaro felice’ Directed by Alice Rohrwacher
Purehearted teen Lazzaro is content living as a sharecropper in rural Italy, but an unlikely friendship with the marquise’s son will change his world.
Adriano Tardiolo Agnese Graziani Luca Chikovani Alba Rohrwacher Sergi López Tommaso Ragno Natalino Balasso Nicoletta Braschi Carlo Massimino Daria Pascal Attolini Maddalena Baiocco Giulia Caccavello Annunziata Capretto Alessandro Genovesi Davide Denci Edoardo Montalto Leonardo Nigro Gala Othero Winter Iris Pulvano Ettore Scarpa Pasqualina Scuncia Carlo Tarmati Pascal Tréguy Daria Deflorian Elisabetta Rocchetti Luciano Vergaro Annibale De Luca Giuseppe Corsini Marcello Duranti Show All…
Michael Weber Tiziana Soudani Carlo Cresto-Dina Michel Merkt Viola Fügen Olivier Père Paolo Del Brocco Gregory Gajos Pierre-François Piet Cécile Tollu-Polonowski
Camilo Sottolichio Florian Trautwein Giulio Aspettati Lucas Berisso Pasquale Di Sano Alessandro Filippucci
Alessandro Novelli Marco Pancrazi Emiliano Novelli Mattia Bisonni Maria Gnecchi Daniele Nguyen Gabriele Scilla
François Musy Christophe Giovannoni Miguel Barbosa Diego S. Staub Marcos Molina Maxence Ciekawy Xavier Lavorel Gianfranco Marongiu
Heureux comme Lazzaro, 행복한 라짜로, Щастливият Лазаро, Lykkelige Lazzaro, Lazzaro Felice, Щастливия Лазаро, Šťastný Lazzaro, Lazzaro Den Lykkelige, Glücklich wie Lazzaro, Ευτυχισμένος Λάζαρος, Lazzaro feliz, לזרו השמח, A szent és a farkas, 幸福なラザロ, Szczęśliwy Lazzaro, Feliz como Lázaro, Fericit ca Lazzaro, Счастливый Лазарь, Срећан као Лазаро, Lycklig som Lazzaro, Mutlu Lazzaro, Щасливий Ладзаро, 幸福的拉扎罗, 幸福的拉扎羅, 幸福的拉札洛
lazzaro is described as a man with an “honest face”. his eyes are coloured by an innocence and naivite that’s rare because we can’t afford to be innocent. so when the first tear falls, your cheeks feel damp too – not even lazzaro can get by on kindness alone. under capitalism, selflessness is perceived as a threat. there is no place for honest faces here.
What is the role of a saint in a world that has turned its back on God in favor of capitalism?
Surreal and funny and aching, the movie makes a potent political point while conjuring a modern day myth out of faces, objects and gestures.
Currently streaming on Netflix. Go and fall under this movie’s spell.
Finally gave Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro a proper watch on Netflix. (Wish I was able to see on the big screen because Hélène Louvart’s Super 16 is lush) And it’s one of my faves of the year. What a fantastic follow-up to The Wonders.
Arriflex 416, Zeiss Ultra Prime Lenses
Laboratory - Augustus Color, Roma, Italy
Super 16 mm (Kodak Vision3 250D 7207, Vision3 500T 7219)
Jesus Christ, literally. What a beautiful, biblical and symbolic piece of art this is. Forget Tenet for a second, it’s films like this which take the idea of studying time to new heights, A Ghost Story being the only thing in recent years to achieve the profoundly complex temporal magic to be seen here. Not only does this have one of the greatest ‘genre switches’ I’ve ever seen, it inherently defies every aspect of the word genre, which to me is always a positive. Alice Rohrwacher’s fantastic use of Super 16mm adds to the dimensionality of time, celluloid hairs and scratches always dancing at the edge of the frame, creating an organic sense of a documented past. I’ve never seen a film like this…
I love:
- White sunlight with blackened edges
- Flip phones that only work when you extend the antenna
- Howling until time stands still
- Rocks that feel as foreign but look as beautiful as the moon
- Profiteroles with chocolate and fresh cream
- Dreams that come alive
- The smell of a good man
Lazzaro is the human version of Paddington and seeing them sad is the worst thing that has ever happened to cinema.
Full review on Lazzaro Felice here.
Alice Rohrwacher is the real deal. This movie has it all and more. A profoundly moving, deeply inhabited film that soars as a portrayal of inequality and exploitation, friendship and selflessness. Lazzaro, as a character, is so impressively, unrelentling unselfish that he is essentially unfit for the world he lives in. Rohrwacher’s use of magical realism allows her to extend the “metaphor” that is Lazzaro beyond just the time he is born into, broadening - ever so lightly - the scope of this story.
I was particularly struck by the distinct change in visual style and aesthetic between the first and second hour. It helps deepen the story, serving as a showcase for Rohrwacher’s…
i get emotional any time i try to wrap up this film in words. i look at lazzaro the way he looks towards the moon & speaks to it as a friend. it’s like he knows a secret – that you can whisper and still be heard.
whenever i see the moon now, i think of lazzaro. but it feels different to me. i feel like i’m always chasing the moon, looking for her, while she always chooses to follow lazzaro. just like the music, they trail behind him, watch over him, and shield him with their light.
Added to: 2018 Ranked, Leo's Top 200+ Favorites, Masterpieces of the 21st Century and 52 Films by Women - 2018
Dreams to survive
Dreams make a wish come true, ooh
Keep your dreams alive
Dream, dream on
Your dream will come alive
I’ve always considered the fable or parable to be one of the most precise and satisfactory forms of storytelling ever conceived. It aches close to being a fairytale but uses the essence of both forms to create something that’s wholly its own. Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice is such an ingenious little fable.
Starting out somewhere in the '90s, we find ourselves in a small village, hidden from the rest of the world. It’s a minuscule…
AFI 2018: film #10
“he’ll follow us, you’ll see”
such a cute character, but otherwise, it wasn’t for me. too much and too little going on simultaneously