LE 2 SCIMMIE

A boy is led blindfolded into a building by a large man. The boy cannot see where he is or what is happening, the only auditory clue being the screams of a girl not too far from him. You know the iconic three monkeys? One does not see, the second does not speak, the third does not hear. In the short film in question, we lose the deaf monkey and everything focuses metaphorically on the blind and the mute one. To personify the two silent animals are two victims of an unclear psychopath who tortures and kills his victims in a dilapidated house. You might think that the reference to the two monkeys indicates that the killer gouges out eyes and cuts out tongues, but it is not exactly the case, because the debilitating condition for the two victims is generated by a simple blindfold to inhibit sight in one case, while in the other it is the organ of taste that is severed. The short film is by Stefano Rossi, who directs the screenplay by Lorenzo Paviano, already collaborators in the previous short film (in fact, very short) "Al di là" of 2010. "The 2 Monkeys" lasts only 8 minutes and perhaps its limit is right there. In its desire to be an "alternative torture porn," the story of "The 2 Monkeys" shows many potentials that would certainly have found an attractive development even in a feature film, but condensed in less than 10 minutes we can only witness a possible episode of the story, the one that ideally could be a prologue or an epilogue. This creates in the viewer a sense of incompleteness, the desire to go beyond that handful of minutes to discover why those people are there, who they are, who is the guy who brought them there and what will happen next. And it must be said that "The 2 Monkeys" has a convincing formal presentation, with a careful photography that prefers warm colors and some nice directorial choices that designate the professionalism and competence of Rossi. The artistic cast is adequate, composed of Matteo Scaletti, Claudia Giglio, and Salvatore Pulzella. In short, "The 2 Monkeys" is a nice short film, well made overall... the only regret is that it is so short.