Dogman

Dogman (2018)
Angsti / Elämäkerta / Jännitys / Outoa
Teema: Avainelokuvat
Maa: Italia, Ranska
Ohjaus: Matteo Garrone
Käsikirjoitus: Massimo Gaudioso, Matteo Garrone, Ugo Chiti
Näyttelijät: Edoardo Pesce, Marcello Fonte
Tuotanto: Paolo Del Brocco, Jean Labadie, Jeremy Thomas, Matteo Garrone / Rai Cinema, Le Pacte, Archimede Film
Kesto: 102 min
Ikäraja: 16
    Kieli: italia    Tekstitys: suomi
    Levittäjä: NonStop Entertainment
    Esityskopio: NonStop Entertainment
    Kuvaus: Nicolaj Brüel
    Leikkaus: Marco Spoletini
Yhteistyössä
Società Dante Alighieri, il mondo in italiano
Istituto italiano di cultura, Helsinki
Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF) Love & Anarchy.
Finnish subtitles by Mika Kaarela, no Swedish. Nor English dialogue or subtitles.
Viewed at Bio Rex, Helsinki, 20 Sep 2019.

Meredith Taylor as quoted by HIFF: "Matteo Garrone’s terrific revenge thriller returns to the filmmaker’s own stamping ground of Caserta with a richly thematic and compulsive exploration of male rivalry and belonging in a downtrodden criminal-infested football-playing community scratching a living."

"Life has always been tough in this neck of the woods, infested by gangland influences: it is a terrain that Garrone knows and describes well in his 2008 feature Gomorrah (HIFF 2008)."

"At the heart of Dogman is a tour de force turn from actor turned director Marcello Fonte who plays an endearing and diminutive dog grooming supremo who although popular and kind, has formed a toxic twosome with local hoodlum and sociopath Simone, a thorn in his side who is dragging him constantly into trouble. Fonte won Best Award at Cannes for his skilful portrayal that switches subtly from sad loner to desperado."

"Garrone sets the desolate scene resonantly with his brilliant lighting and inventive camerawork, this time working with DoP Nicolai Bruel, who paints this part of Italy with an almost gothic desperation highlighted by Michele Braga’s mournful musical score." Meredith Taylor, Filmuforia

AA: Matteo Garrone's Dogman boasts powerful performances by Marcello Fonte as as the gentle dog groomer Marcello and Edoardo Pesce as Simoncino, the brutal hulk who is the menace of the waterfront storekeepers in Caserta, north of Naples. It is a brutal revenge tragedy. The counter-image to the world of desolation is the underwater paradise explored by Marcello together with his beloved daughter Alida.

Marcello belongs to a community of small entrepreneurs and shopkeepers. They hang out after office hours and play football. Marcello is a small-time keeper of a dog care center, a devoted professional.

He wants to be in good terms with everybody, and he is also a small-time cocaine provider at the bottom of the chain of the distribution.

Among his acquaintances is Simoncino, a violent and uncontrollable criminal who harasses everybody in order to collect protection money. Marcello is his cocaine provider. When Marcello refuses to become complicit in a robbery of his neighbour, Simoncino forces him to give access to his keys. Marcello is convicted to a year in prison because he refuses to squeal on Simoncino.

When Marcello returns, he has become an outcast in his community, and even Simoncino avoids him. Unbeknownst to him, the diminitive Marcello has become brutalized in prison. The giant monster Simoncino realizes too late that the tables have turned.

The story of Dogman belongs to the classic school of revenge tragedy: violence brutalizes everybody, and the rest is desolation.

The imagery is bleak, dark and dirty. The architecture is grim, wind is blowing on the empty beach. The mise-en-scène in CinemaScope is carefully created. The actors are realistic and compelling.

The desolation is not absolute. A counter-image to the brutality is the tender care of the dogs that Marcello is treating. Even more important is his daughter Alida whom Marcello keeps taking to diving tours. The underwater world is wonderful and there you forget the horror above.

Varoitus: tämä on se toinen, ei bella Italia. Gomorra-elokuvasta (R&A 2008) tuttu harmaansävyinen ja ankea periferia, epätoivon maisema, luo puitteet urbaaniksi länkkäriksi tituleeratulle Matteo Garronen uusimmalle elokuvalle. Lännenelokuvien arojen tavoin tässä kalseassa betonihelvetissä vallitsee vahvimman laki. Se vahvin on entinen nyrkkeilijä Simoncino (Edoardo Pesce): moottoripyörällä hurjasteleva, kaikkien kammoksuma rikollinen. Hänen terrorinsa kohteeksi valikoituu useimmiten ystävällinen ja pienikokoinen, rähjäistä koirahoitolaa pitävä Marcello (Marcello Fonte), joka haluaisi vain elää rauhassa, pitää huolta rakkaista koira-asiakkaistaan ja tyttärestään. Haave lomasta tyttären kanssa vaatii kuitenkin hämäriä bisneksiä.

Marcellon, jonka kasvot ovat suoraan kuin neorealismin ajan elokuvista, ja tätä kiusaavan Simoncinon välillä vallitsee outo riippuvuussuhde. Lopulta Daavidin on kohdattava Goljat – ja se ei ole kaunista katsottavaa.

Italialaiset muistavat 1980-luvulla sattuneen väkivaltaisen “Maglianan koiramiehen” tapauksen, josta elokuva saa innoituksensa. Kotimaassa yleisö- ja arvostelumenestykseksi noussut Dogman palkittiin myös Cannesissa: Kultaisen palmun nappasivat sekä Fonte että elokuvan koiratähdet.

Hilla Okkonen (HIFF)