Alberto Lattuada's directorial debut took place during the years of the Fascist regime. The filmmaker from Milan hides behind the shield of a literary work to escape possible censorship.
Giacomo the Idealist (Giacomo l'idealista) is in fact a work based on the late nineteenth-century novel by Emilio De Marchi, which tells the story of Giacomo Lanzavecchia (Massimo Serato), professor of philosophy and Garibaldian veteran, and his beloved Celestina (Marina Berti). Their love is hindered by a young scion of the Lombard aristocracy. In this film, Lattuada shows that he has assimilated the formalist lesson of his masters Mario Soldati and Ferdinando Poggioli. This sensitivity led the critics to define Lattuada as a "calligraphic" director, a label that does not do justice to an eclectic author, capable of dialoguing with art-house and genre cinema with great originality.
Mattia Lento
