By George Bate
The tragic murder of a young man that shocked Italy in 2016 serves as the basis for a profoundly gut-wrenching piece of cinema, made all the more devastating by the authenticity of its performances and sensitivity to its subject matter.
Making its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti Competition, The City of the Living follows Luca Varani (Emanuele Di Stefano), a 23-year-old man aimlessly making his way through young adulthood. With the loving support of his parents (Simona Senzacqua and Valerio Mastandrea) and his girlfriend Marta (Gaia Merlonghi), Luca navigates friendships, relationships, work, and school before he stumbles into a double life that leads to his unfortunate passing.
Based on Nicola Lagiola’s bestselling book of the same, The City of the Living takes a decidedly different approach to the true crime genre. Rather than sensationalize a senseless murder or construct an intriguing murder mystery around it to follow, filmmaker Edoardo Gabbriellini (Holiday) zooms in on the eventual victim of the crime, offering an intimate slice-of-life account of the late Luca Varani.
Such an approach means that Gabbriellini lets the audience follow Luca, an endearing, kind, yet flawed young man, as he simply navigates different challenges in his life. There is not much in the way of a traditional narrative; instead, the film simply chronicles the ups and downs of a young man with his entire life seemingly ahead of.
In less capable hands, The City of the Living may make for drab viewing, but the world in which Gabbriellini engineers is so authentic that empathy and immersion arise effortlessly. Luca’s ultimate fate is all the more heartbreaking given that Gabbriellini treats him like an actual person, flaws and all. Luca is endearing, sweet, funny, and kind-hearted, but also imperfect and meandering. The man who lovingly kisses and holds his mother is the same person who breaks up with his girlfriend on a whim and almost steals a young kid’s chain. The film offers a completely nonjudgmental view on Luca and understands that, like everyone, he possesses virtues and deficits.
Bolstering the remarkable realism of The City of the Living is a lead performance from Emanuele Di Stefano, whose grounded, often understated turn renders Luca more than a protagonist of a story – he is a real person that the audience is fortunate enough to follow and quickly learn to care for. Di Stefano portrays the aimlessness and uncertainty that characterizes many individuals’ young adulthood with precision and sincerity, never once leaning into melodrama to deliver a certain emotion or beat.
The world in which Luca inhabits feels similarly genuine. Newcomer Gaia Merlonghi plays Luca’s girlfriend Marta with a naturalism of a seasoned veteran of acting, Valerio Mastandrea captures the simultaneous concern and care that encapsulates parenthood, and every other performer, even those who only have a line or two, occupy the screen with such truth it could be mistaken for a documentary at times.
The empathy for Luca that Di Stefano and Gabbriellini cultivate throughout the film makes his inevitable death as agonizing as it is disturbing. Respectfully, Gabbriellini does not linger on the details of the death nor does he unduly focus on the perpetrators. Instead, he leaves the final act of his film to allow the audience to sit with Luca’s loved ones as they grieve for him. Their grief, the grief of the characters, becomes our own. Even the most steadfast of viewers are likely to feel a harrowing pit in their stomach as they vicariously anguish over the death of a man we come to intimately understand.
The City of the Living is the antithesis of a crowd-pleaser. In fact, it’s one of the bleaker films in recent memory. However, after the credits roll and one considers the series of events that unfolded on screen, it is difficult to not feel lasting love for a person most viewers will have never met. It is an extraordinary feat of Di Stefano, Gabbriellini, and the entire creative team that Luca feels more real than the vast majority of characters across media and that, by offering a raw portrayal of his life, they create both a lovely celebration and stirring memorial.
VERDICT: 8.5/10
Making its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti Competition, The City of the Living is a profoundly gut-wrenching piece of cinema, made all the more devastating by the authenticity of its performances and sensitivity to its subject matter. Edoardo Gabbriellini’s film approaches the true crime genre from a decidedly more respectful position by avoiding sensationalization and intimately focusing on the life of a young man taken far too soon. In offering a deeply authentic portrayal of Luca Varani, one that showcases both his virtues and deficits, lead actor Emanuele Di Stefano cultivates incredible empathy, and even love, for a man most viewers never met in their lifetimes. Similarly genuine supporting performances make Gabbriellini’s film play like a documentary at times, positioning the audience as a fly-on-the-wall to a slice-of-life into the aimlessness and uncertainty of young adulthood. When the inevitable occurs, the film proves as agonizing as it is disturbing and powerfully makes the audience feel the grief that Luca’s loved ones on-screen are experiencing. The antithesis of a crowd-pleaser, The City of the Living is one of the bleaker films in recent memory, yet its uncanny ability to foster care, concern, and love for its imperfect protagonist rivals any movie this year.