A Chiara
The moody Italian drama “A Chiara” is a character study about a 15-year old Calabrian who finds out her father is a wanted criminal and the rest of the world suddenly seems very small. In this movie, the streets of Gioia Tauro look pre-shrunk only because they belong mostly to Chiara (Swamy Rotolo), who tries to find and connect with her elusive dad Claudio (Claudio Rotolo).
But reading about how writer/director Jonas Carpignano (“A Ciambra,” “Mediterranea”) worked with members of the Rotolo family all residents of Gioia Tauro on creating a focus for the story around Chiara and her subjective experience is more exciting than watching “A Chiara.” And selective information was given to certain members of the family about what they were supposed to do or what would happen in any particular scene. So that these gifted non professional actors might respond as naturally as possible; given the semi-improvised nature of the movie’s scenario, there’s only so much they can tell us.
This means that most everything we learn about Chiara, Claudio and their Calabrian home comes from some early scenes. Some relatives are annoyed that Chiara vapes, because she’s a young woman. She petulantly points out the sexist double standard in that logic, but it doesn’t go anywhere. A mysterious gang of men has just shown up down the street, so Chiara’s kin have to drop everything and meet them.
Other ominous portents include an unforeseen car bomb. Also Claudio won’t give a toast for his eldest daughter Giulia (Grecia Rotolo) at her birthday party because he’s too emotional; his objections eventually hijack this scene. “I don’t need to say it out loud,” people want him to make a speech which is fairly rote in terms of built-in ambiguity, but also characteristic of a movie whose soft impressionistic focus tends to blanket any observable behavior on screen.
Through TV news reports, Chiara soon finds out her dad’s a fugitive. First Claudio goes missing; then Chiara discovers the entrance to a secret bunker. Most of what happens in the movie concerns Chiara’s frustrated attempts to find out more about her father: She stumbles onto a member of the Roma community, who tells her that Claudio is known as “U Picciu” (or “The Boy”). She tries also to get more information about him from her cousin Antonio (Antonio Rotolo), but he and her mom Carmela (Carmela Fumo), and her sister Giorgia (Giorgia Rotolo) won’t discuss Claudio. An oppressive conspiracy seems to have formed around the subject; it’s hard to know what it is, if anything.
The slice-of-life narrative in this movie consists mostly of mundane details that feel like shorthand. Chiara goes to the gym, drinks with friends, cuts class and gets caught. In other words, she appears half ways lodged in some comfort zone and halfway toward some other young adulthood suggested by her father’s vague mafia-related identity. “It’s not what you think,” she’s told repeatedly and not just by Claudio though who can say what she’s thinking? I don’t know how normal these activities are for Chiara; all I know is they’re part of her life.
In the same vein, there’s no need to infer anything more than that Chiara is living through a present which appears uncertain when she walks with soft camera focuses through Gioia Tauro’s streets and hyper restrictive handheld camerawork, real time long takes and naturalistic lighting.
“A Chiara” shows its best side and its worst in a scene toward the end of the film where Antonio gets stopped by the police at a roadblock. An air traffic control-like dull roar fills the soundtrack, while blue lights from the Carabinieri’s cars flash and wash over her face rather than illuminating it. The lights of the cars only give an illusion of depth, just like the silences that punctuate Antonio’s one sided time killer of a conversation (did you know Raphael was from Urbino?).
This scene isn’t about what these two main characters say; it is about what Antonio thinks needs to be done in order to protect Chiara, and how stuck she feels regardless. But instead of helping us understand their complex power dynamic better, this scene’s flashy presentation only adds dramatic pressure onto an already tense moment. And that kind of pressure doesn’t mean anything it just means that things are really intense.
Carpignano’s impressionistic plotting and pseudo naturalistic style do tend to boil down human emotions into suggesting rather than revealing complexity. So limiting. So thoughtless are the style and characterizations in “A Chiara.”
Watch A Chiara For Free On Solarmovies.