FilmSnobReviews

Title: Gelateria
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Arthur Patching and Christian Serritiello
Starring: Carrie Getman, Tomas Spencer, Christian Serritiello, Jade Willis
Runtime: 62 minutes

What It Is: In an English seaside town in winter a young man screams out into the sea. His words are inaudible because he has no voice ‘Gelateria’ gives a form to his potent silence as a five-course meal including aperitif and desserts.

Zbigniew is on a train heading to Zurich accompanied by his loveless partner and knows he has no choice but to jump off the train at the next stop – He hopes this unconventional action will change the course of his life. He then begins a journey to deal with the murky waters of his past and follow through with his deeply held psychological and artistic obsessions. However, the world he now finds himself passing through has other things in store for him. Menacing bourgeois bohemians that bark, performance artists that shoot real guns, caged humans that talk only in the language of birds and fearful townsfolk all stand in the way of him recapturing his essence.

What We Think: It’s ironic that 20 minutes into the film the scene is that of an art gallery, as my immediate thought, once it became clear that the film was avant-garde, was to liken it to a painting.

Gelateria evokes the idea of films being works of art, hung up on walls for those to take in as a snapshot of the director’s vision. Some films play to the eye without explanation, simple in their storyline a la Michael Bay. Some films hang in the galleria as works of art that challenge the mind while inspiring awe, a la Steven Spielberg.

But for the galleria to be a true representation of artistic venture one must include the film that hangs in a way that lent itself to the idea that the display may not have understood which way to hang it. That its impact is either lost somewhere in the strokes that look like splattered paint to some and beautiful emotion to others.

From the films opening of silent screams from one that looks onto the balmy sea, to its progression through intimate violations of its characters shocked faces, It’s not unheard of to search for sense in it all. The sound and artisan shots are part of the film’s characterization as it progresses but the storyline is not. Yet you find yourself watching with an interesting need for completion even as the story seems to rest finally on an unusual tale of an elderly artist.

Our Grade: D, Appreciation of artistry rests on the mind taking in that particular art. As one that has walked the halls and taken in the films, I can honestly say that this one alluded me. The characters are unpredictable, a nuance uncommon in current films, but whether that be because it’s truly artistic or simply weird would be for the audience to decide. I found myself paying particular attention to a theme that threaded its way through the film, in hopes of not missing a film obviously meant to be impactful art, but lacked even that in my screening. This film has an audience, I’m sorry to say that wasn’t me.