Lump On Sacroiliac Joint

LE ROSE DEL DESERTO

Italia 2006
di Mario Monicelli.

Con Michele Placido, Giorgio Pasotti, Alessandro Haber, Fulvio Falzarano, Moran Atias, Tatti Sanguinetti.

L’ultimo film di Monicelli è uno sguardo disincantato sulla guerra, siamo nel 1940, in Libia, quella che allora era considerata una colonia italiana. Girato nel 2006 a 91 anni, la produzione volle un regista d’emergenza da affiancargli nella peggiore eventualità. E’ un addio dichiarato, dopo 65 regie e 58 sceneggiature. LE ROSE DEL DESERTO è ispirato al romanzo autobiografico de Il Deserto Della Libia di Mario Tobino (lo stesso dal quale Dino Risi una ventina d'anni prima aveva tratto il film Scemo di guerra ), che riporta Monicelli alle sue personali vicende vissute in Abissinia, ricordi trasposti con poesia e amarezza.

Questo vuol essere il nostro modo per ricordare e omaggiare the great director and the man who knew how to live and die in his own way.

Film Fata Morgana

A premise: we had to wait for a "grand old man" as Mario Monicelli to finally breathe an air of heated film different from the usual soup of the Italian production, based on Clips aspiring to be comedies or copyright.
The master of bittersweet comedy directed in fact, at the age of 92 years, a lucid and ironic film that shows an excerpt from the history of our country through the small men committed during the Second World War, on the face of Libya.

LE ROSE DEL DESERTO, che prende il titolo dalle rocce levigate dal vento fino ad assumere una forma simile appunto a quella delle rose, racconta la vita di un equipe di medici italiani che attendono feriti dal fronte allestendo un ospedale da campo. Il tempo scorre lentamente ed, in particolare, vediamo un giovane medico (Giorgio Pasotti) incuriosito dai luoghi e dalla gente locale mentre il suo maggiore (Alessandro Haber) è concentrato unicamente a scrivere lettere d’amore alla moglie lontana e (forse) infedele; il resto dei soldati inganna il tempo ascoltando messaggi dal comando con la radio malfunzionante e tentando di stringere rapporti con la popolazione locale schiva e sospettosa. Tra i medici arriverà Dominican priest, then a keen (Michele Placido), who, for years in Libya, takes care of children and to give last rites to the dying. Through the eyes of the protagonists will see the defeat of the Italian army and German forces against the British, with doctors and nurses forced to retreat and come back, unfortunately, even dramatically, at home.

THE ROSE OF THE DESERT recounts with grace and humor small incidents of life, both military and human, through the everyday life of a small cluster of people waiting for the war every day. Monicelli compound strife with those of the various participants, assigned to the interpretation of a cast of famous actors- and not-very fit, with characterization of natural and moderate, is a pleasure, for example, Michele Placido see a witty and incisive that states without going over the top as it often does, or a Giorgio Pasotti more mature than his previous film, although has an uncertain tone of voice, speech different for Alessandro Haber plays a character who deliberately caricatured and, although sympathetic, a bit out of place in the narrative dimension of the film.
Monicelli reserve several pleasant surprises his audience: the director does not give up his streak of lucid and caustic irony antiwar efforts and explaining the difficulties of ordinary soldiers, the daily problems they face on a foreign Instead, compare the figures of their officers (colonels and generals) that prove people are inept and unreliable. Worthy of praise, from this point of view, the general picture of a caricaturist stupid, arrogant and irresponsible (he also holds a funny catchphrase "motorcycle") so well expressed by the critic Tatti Sanguinetti, through which Monicelli setting out its view on on a ridiculous war and a comic-opera with the Italian army men sent to die in a futile.

Despite the severe problems of budget changes seen with rough sets, it is clear that the film was made with an effort significant production (and also rare in our current cinema), maximizing available resources and means of war showing different vintage and beautiful landscapes, with all shots taken on location (not in studios) in the charming Tunisian desert.
conclusion (also for sore note, leave at the end), Desert Roses is an enjoyable film and well interpreted, that entertains and makes you think, but we also regret to say that does not scratch Monicelli used to be and his film reveals a bit 'vague, only to leave shortly after his vision in the spectator: the causes are varied and range from a narrative tone is too light to a script without a well-focused point of view, and a final a pair of rapid development (perhaps due to budget) to some concepts expressed markedly.

Paul Pugliese - occhisulcinema.it