The Place

A man sits every day in the same cafe at the same table. Nobody knows his name. He tells whoever comes to him that they can have what they want; in return they have to do something. The wishes are large: to be cured, to see, to bring someone back. The tasks he sets usually require harming someone else. Ten people come and go and the man never leaves his table. Paolo Genovese directed and wrote it with Isabella Aguilar. The source is The Booth at the End, an American web series created by Christopher Kubasik in 2010. The form is built on one location and one table. Everything advances through dialogue; no event is shown on screen and things exist only as far as they are described. It closed the 12th Rome Film Festival on 5 November 2017 and opened in Italy on 509 screens on 9 November. The question at the centre is practical rather than moral: how much harm will a person do to someone else to get what they want. Who the man is is never said. Who it is for: viewers who like single-location dialogue films and moral dilemmas. Who it is not for: anyone wanting something visual. It is close to a radio play, and some of the story strands are plainly weaker than others.