I had high hopes for this film but alas it’s a tremendously, and I say this with all the affection I have for Svevo Moltrasio, bad film.

Gli Ospiti is a great success in terms of communication (crowdfunding went well with 102k raised, good for Svevo!) but when it comes down to it, the film isn’t there, and thankfully I didn’t travel from the Marche to see the film otherwise I would have been really angry, instead now I’m just disappointed.

Dreadful cinematography, television-style editing, redundant and without ideas.

Characters that are beyond unrealistic in the way they speak, except for the character played by Svevo. Then there’s the character played by Federico Iarlori, Fabrizio, who is excessively dressed like an idiot and talks and moves like one. The problem is that in real life a real idiot is the antithesis of that character.

The story holds up simply because it deploys all the usual tricks like who’s the bad guy etc etc… in the comedic mechanisms, like for instance the repetitions, the laugh never lands.

The only thing saved is Svevo Moltrasio’s performance as an actor, the film’s writer, director and editor, truly convincing in the part.

Unfortunately, as much as the cinema system in Italy is drowning in rich heirs who can wait their turn and the poor quality of the works, this certainly doesn’t displace the already bad films copied from France. Even an average Muccino film is better than Gli Ospiti.

What a disappointment this film.

I waited two years for it but when it arrived, to me, in the Marche, only as a Vimeo link, the film neither entertained nor amused me.

The problem is always the writing

The strong point, which in this type of low, or rather, no-budget works, should be the writing because it costs nothing to write a good story designed for very little money. Unfortunately here the writing is nonsensical, slapdash and superficial, letting through everything that cinema should never allow to pass: the fiction.

Everything is too fake and never believable, a difference that anyone making films should always keep in mind.

The biggest problem, in my opinion, is that the film is exactly the same, especially in its editing, as his very successful YouTube videos on “Come Muore Il Cinema in Italia” (How Cinema Dies in Italy).

Perhaps another great YouTuber has been born (with all the respect I have for YouTubers, I personally gave up on this content creator thing 15 years ago) but unfortunately I don’t see the birth or discovery of a great auteur.

I think about all the filmmakers I love and who are all harshly criticized for works that we can’t even think of, imagine, let alone make.

Let’s think about that.

I won’t name names because one of my mentors rightly taught me not to make comparisons between films and filmmakers. He’s right.

I’ll leave the links to his YouTube videos, his most successful work to date.

Come Muore Il Cinema

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