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The Independent Critic

STARRING
Gea Martina Landini, Michael Segal
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
Simone A. Tognarelli
RUNNING TIME
10 Mins.

 

 "A New Born" Plays Cannes Short Film Corner 
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Italian filmmaker Simone A. Tognarelli's first film is the 10-minute drama/fantasy/thriller A New Born, which played at the Cannes Short Film Corner and is now making its way around the international film festival circuit. The film tells the story of a woman (Gea Martina Landini) who runs through a corridor, enters a room, then closes the door.

"They" knock.

A New Born is called a "travel through the mind of one of us, immersed in the system of electric waves, flashing lights, and talking screens all around." The film is visually arresting with lensing by Francesco Mazzei that is a full-on sensory experience that immerses you in this world as much as it immerses our main character.

Tognarelli avoids dialogue in favor of creating a current of sight and sound with Landini's face and body revealing its impact in remarkably dramatic ways. The film's original music, by Jacopo Aliboni, is jarring and disjointed and itself feels like a birthing experience of sorts that companions the film with tremendous effect.

I will confess that I found it all just a tad tiresome by film's end, though I suppose that impact is not completely a negative thing as this concept, that of a "new born," is a concept borne out of a journey itself that can be long and winding and tiresome. Tognarelli's commitment to the experience is admirable and it's a film that lingers in your psyche' long after the closing credits have rolled.

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic