The Star Maker

The film Giuseppe Tornatore made about cinema after Cinema Paradiso, and this time it is not affectionate. Sicily in the 1950s. Joe Morelli presents himself as a talent scout for a film company in Rome. He travels from village to village filming screen tests: people look into the camera and read a passage, and the reel will go to the studio, and perhaps they will become actors. He charges them for it. There is no film in the camera. The whole thing is a swindle. Its strength is what people say in front of that camera. Nobody reads the passage; everyone starts telling their own life: what they lost in the war, what they did, what they have never told anyone. Joe is selling it, and what he records is real. Then a young woman named Beata attaches herself to him, and the swindler's own life comes apart. Sergio Castellitto plays Joe and Tiziana Lodato plays Beata. Ennio Morricone wrote the music. It competed at Venice in 1995 and was nominated for the foreign language film Oscar. A strong choice for anyone who loves Italian cinema and stories about people who believe in the movies. For a viewer expecting the warmth of Cinema Paradiso, this film is far more merciless.