LA NOTTE DEL MIO PRIMO AMORE

A small provincial town has been shaken, for some time now, by the atrocities of a serial killer who kidnaps young girls and subjects them to exhausting torture before killing them. Seventeen-year-old Chiara, after yet another argument, is left by her boyfriend Andrea and, partly out of spite, partly encouraged by the advice of her friend and accomplice Marina, the girl accepts the courtship of Matteo, a charming instructor at the gym where Chiara and Marina spend their evenings. One evening, Chiara decides to accept Matteo's proposal and spend the whole night at his country villa, but from the very beginning, Chiara notices something strange in the boy's behavior, who goes from sweet and gentle to suddenly aggressive and violent. After finding some newspaper clippings about the serial killer and some bloodstains in the house, Chiara begins to think she is in serious danger... It is strange to come across a fully Italian horror film in theaters; the last time was in the summer of 2004 with the episodic horror "I tre voti del terrore", a poorly executed homage that Sergio Stivaletti had undertaken towards the genre cinema of the 60s. We are in 2006, always during the summer (strategic for horror film releases) and Mediafilm distributes with a considerable number of copies "La notte del mio primo amore", the debut film of young director Alessandro Pambianco. The title may seem misleading, as it is not a romantic comedy but a horrific thriller that winks at the Italian thrillers of the 80s on one hand, and modern American teen movies on the other. "La notte del mio primo amore" was born as an independent project, self-produced by Parsfilm and, according to the intentions of the producers, certainly not destined for wide distribution, but, despite this, Pambianco's film holds up very well, not at all revealing to the viewer's eye the independent nature and the extreme paucity of the budget available. Everything appears as a dignified entertainment product that has the great merit of distancing itself (in fact, having nothing to do with) the now-ubiquitous television world that infects today's Italian cinema (even auteur cinema); therefore, no glossy fiction photography (for the film, a digital close to the film effect, dirty and realistic, was used) and no particularly marked reference to the empty and unbearable stereotype of the Italian teenager who lives in the shadow of the Olympus of false media myths. What is described in "La notte del mio primo amore" is nothing other than the loss of innocence, observable at a topical age in a human's life; the age when the first real life experiences are made and the world and all the dangers that populate it are truly confronted. Naturally, the film in question describes this initiatory period through the stylisms of horror cinema, without falling into the characteristic becera sociology of capture in comedies, nor reaching pigli dramatic from auteur films; "La notte del mio primo amore" sets itself only the task of entertaining the viewer for 80 minutes, amusing them and perhaps scaring them and it fully succeeds in its task. The result is a fast and gripping film, well capable of playing with tension, the absolute protagonist of the last twenty minutes, combined with a good characterization of the characters, a very rare characteristic in teen horror. Some weak points can be found in the screenplay by Germano Tarricone, which, on the one hand, does a good job with the characters, but on the other does not pay particular attention to the events that characterize the figure of the killer (a giant similar to Faccia di cuoio played by Lucio Mattioli) and his past. Another flaw can be found in the final climax, a bit too rushed, and in the meager dose of gore. Pambianco's direction is definitely good for a former sound technician for the first time dealing with a feature film and contains above all the experience of someone who knows horror cinema well as a viewer. Even the cast, although almost exclusively composed of young actors in their debut, is very convincing, especially the female department, that is, the debuting protagonist Giulia Ruffinelli and Valentina Izumi, who plays the role of Marina. The worst was feared from this small production, but instead we found ourselves in front of a gripping and well-made film, which, although not exempt from several limitations, shows courage in a productive environment like the Italian one and it is hoped that it will not remain an isolated case.