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Pietro Marcello follows his interwar fairytale, <\/span>Scarlet<\/span><\/i><\/a>, by returning to the same time period for a\u00a0half-literal, half-imagined portrait of legendary Italian actress Eleonora Duse. There are surface comparisons to Pablo Larrian\u2019s <\/span>Maria<\/span><\/i><\/a>,<\/span><\/i> for Eleonora is an ailing icon in her final act \u2013 the film covers 1917<\/span>\u2009\u2013\u20091923<\/span> and she died in 1924<\/span> aged 65<\/span>. Yet there is little overlap between Angelina Jolie\u2019s stagey performance and the seamless choices made here by leading lady Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.<\/span><\/p>\n A familiar and reliable presence, usually cast in supporting roles in French films, such as Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet\u2019s romcom, Anais in Love, and Catherine Corsini\u2019s social drama, <\/span>The Divide<\/span><\/i><\/a>, here Tedeschi goes for broke, gliding between layers of constructed persona and raw emotion. Eleonora is usually a\u00a0beatific, almost religious presence \u2013 all hushed, breathy whispers and eyes glistening with unshed tears, but sometimes something primal erupts and her voice deepens by several octaves, on one occasion literally scaring the children.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Marcello takes his time to establish the shifting social sands of this period as amid WW1<\/span><\/span> trauma, the nation picks itself up and rallies around a\u00a0plucky, can-do leader by the name of Mussolini. He resists the urge to award Eleonora foresight about how this man will be read to modern audiences. \u200b\u201c<\/span>I feel like I\u2019m blind,\u201d she says towards the end, and it\u2019s true that she cannot see Mussolini \u2013 who writes off her debt \u2013 as a\u00a0nascent fascist dictator. Indeed, her only functioning instincts are towards the theatre. Neither her tuberculosis nor the entreaties of her daughter (Noemie Merlant) exert the same gravitational pull as a\u00a0chance to reunite with her partner in love and drama, the playwright, Gabrielle D\u2019Annunzio (whose legacy is also closely associated with fascism).<\/span><\/p>\n Although she peers out with piercing blue eyes at the broken bodies of soldiers in field hospitals, Eleonora cannot connect her gifts to the present moment. Documentarian-turned-feature filmmaker, Marcello continues a\u00a0motif used in <\/span>Martin Eden<\/span><\/i><\/a> and <\/span>Scarlet<\/span><\/i> by incorporating archival footage. Grainy images of military funerals and street brawls offer a\u00a0scope of vision that eludes Eleonora, although the film struggles to cleanly distinguish between its directorial perspective and the more blinkered point-of-view of its protagonist.<\/span><\/p>\n Marcello shows the tensions surrounding an adored national treasure who, on one hand, is expected to keep on performing traditional plays by Ibsen and Shakespeare and, on the other, is critiqued for not using her stature to platform new work. The stakes of pushing boundaries at this late stage in her career are illustrated in a\u00a0lively, stand out scene in which a\u00a0booing audience pelt a\u00a0first-time playwright with vegetables. (Guests of La Biennale can be relieved that this mode of feedback has died\u00a0out.)<\/span><\/p>\n Working from an original script (<\/span>Martin Eden<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Scarlet<\/span><\/i> were both adaptations) the original material does not fully merit the grave tone that persists as Eleonora wends her way through days that\u2009\u2014\u2009in contrast with most of her countrymen\u2009\u2014\u2009are light on peril and stakes. The film unfolds via a\u00a0series of vignettes that have a\u00a0tendency to go into convoluted details, labouring every beat of meandering conversations between peripheral characters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Anachronistic touches, such as an opening shot in which World War One is rendered with toy models and a\u00a0classical and electronic score by Marco Messina and Sacha Ricci, offer welcome respite from the overly portentous atmosphere. Yet keeping the film alive throughout the muted world building is Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\nGet more Little White\u00a0Lies<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n