Il pranzo onirico
(Italy, 1996) by Eros Puglielli
21’, Italian
Luca, a shy and spacey young man in his twenties, meets his girlfriend’s relatives. Her family environment seems to be oppressive and formal, so much so that the boy suddenly falls asleep, and once more he’s chased by a recurring nightmare that is getting more and more real.
Eros Puglielli, an enfant prodige in nineties Italian cinema, directed this surreal immersion in Italian comedy while studying at the Experimental Cinematography Centre; however, nothing in Il pranzo onirico resembles that period’s approach. The sunday’s lunch with his parents-in-law turns into a helzapoppin’ of grotesque expedients, avant-pop cataclysms, over the limit of common sense. A real must-see.
Dorme
(Italy, 1994/2000) by Eros Puglielli
75’, Italian
Ruggero, a boy in his eighties living in Rome’s suburbs is dumped by his girlfriend because of his short stature. As he as no intention of giving up, he keeps phoning her, but the only answer he ever gets is “Anna is sleeping”. Therefore, he decides to go and wait for her outside her house with his friend Michele, but to do so he has to venture into the public housing zone, which is controlled by the infamous Riccio brothers, who actually is a psychopathic thug who thinks he’s split into two separate twins...
The masterpiece of self-produced Italian cinema of the Nineties, shot in super VHS and then transferred on film on 2000.
A funny and nightmarish journey into Rome’s suburbs, with delirious wide shots, a skyline every bit as fascinating as New York’s, and a villain, the Riccio “brothers”, who’s just a few steps away from becoming a legend.
The final showdown, a punch-up reminiscent to those in anime, is sublime.
Introduced by director Eros Puglielli and Focus On curator Raffaele Meale.