IL METODO ORFEO

Professor Giulio Casobon travels to a Mediterranean island with his partner Virginia to write a thriller novel. The couple has rented a villa where, two years earlier, a massacre took place in which seven people lost their lives; the house with a tragic past was deliberately chosen because Giulio is convinced that a place where such an event occurred offers greater involvement of the writer with the story he wants to narrate. The first days do not proceed smoothly: strange noises disturb the couple's nighttime tranquility, and unsettling findings in the garden make them suspect that someone is trying to scare the new arrivals. One day, Virginia meets a girl dressed in white and in poor health on the beach who mysteriously disappears shortly afterward without a trace; from that moment, the woman begins to investigate the identity of the girl who seems somehow connected to the murder that occurred two years earlier in their villa. The method that gives the title to the film refers to the well-known myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, the man who descended into the Underworld to retrieve his beloved; in this case, we have a writer who goes metaphorically to the "Inferno" to find inspiration, an Inferno that here is represented by the place of a disturbing multiple murder. The mythological reference allows the Genoese director Filippo Sozzi, here in his debut with a feature film after years of shorts and documentaries, to tackle a quite enjoyable supernatural thriller. The strength of this independent film probably lies in the well-chosen story and the overall professionalism with which everything has been realized. In fact, despite the artistic and technical cast being predominantly made up of newcomers and the budget available being only 10,000 euros, "Il Metodo Orfeo" appears as a much richer product than it actually is, and the final package seems to have involved subjects already experienced in the world of cinema. The actors appear comfortable acting in a film, despite being predominantly from the theater, and in general they are also quite good and suited to the role assigned to them. Among the many faces involved, the two protagonists, played by theater actors Riccardo Traverso and Cecilia Nesti, stand out particularly. The screenplay, by Sabrina Sappa, Alessandro Gentini, and Sozzi himself, is well-constructed to succeed in engaging the viewer: a thriller with giallo twists and a touch of supernatural horror. A mix that seems to work really well, accompanying the viewer through a story that manages to functionally blend all the typical elements of the genre. It all starts with a writer in search of strong emotions for writing his novel, a character and a situation dear to both the Italian cinematic tradition (especially the 1980s) and Stephen King's literature; it then moves on to the isolated and apparently cursed dwelling, a commonplace in many horrors, to then focus on a whole series of elements typical of the Gothic tradition, such as the mad scientist, the mysterious girl, and the hidden sepulcher. In short, many elements chosen with care that could have been simple and annoying clichés and instead are sewn together in a completely functional way. What perhaps works less well in "Il Metodo Orfeo" is the almost television-like flatness of some passages and the not very appreciable photography, a result probably due to the use of a digital video camera. The film has not yet found distribution, but we hope it will eventually reach adequate visibility, because it is definitely worth a watch.