‘Finally Dawn’ Review: Nostalgia-Heavy Cinecitta Ingenue Tale Struggles With Tone – Venice Film Festival
deadline.comThe glory days of Cinecitta are evoked in Finally Dawn (Finalmente l’Alba), a sprawling story of uncertain tone – sometimes thrilled, sometimes appalled and sometimes as generally bewildered as nervous ingenue Mimosa (Rebecca Antonaci), an ordinary young woman of Rome who finds herself leading the way through this warren of a Wonderland.
Cinecitta has recently revived its fortunes after a long slump, with a slow build of refurbishment and expansion, but director Saverio Costanzo leans heavily into nostalgia for times past, setting his story in the ‘50s when there were still legions of centurions marching around the studio lot and live animals awaiting their close-ups.
A lion features here, roaring at passers-by. It may well be the film’s most sympathetic character. Mimosa is not the least bit leonine.
She is only at Cinecitta because her sister Iris (Sofia Panizzi) was approached at the local cinema by someone from the studio who said he was scouting for extras and that she should come next day and do a quick audition.
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