離別練習曲

離別練習曲
意大利、英國、羅馬尼亞 | 2020 | 95’ | 彩色 | 英語 | 英文字幕 | 組別: B
導演: Uberto Pasolini

A film like Nowhere Special, about a single father grappling with a terminal illness, and the small son he knows he has to leave behind, needs the lightest of touches: one false move and it could turn cloying or overwrought. Uberto Pasolini, long admired in British film circles for his producing abilities, proves in his third film as a director that he knows precisely how to set the right tone, both visually and for his two lead actors. James Norton plays a damaged, working class man opposite the wholly charming child actor, and it’s the year’s most affecting cinematic double-act. Northern Ireland window cleaner John wants to find a new home for his four year-old boy Michael before he passes away, and this film brings all the empathy it can muster to the story about the search for meaning at the end of one life and which turns into finding the right start for another.

FIONNUALA HALLIGAN

John, a 35-year-old window cleaner, has dedicated his life to bringing up his four-year-old son, Michael, after the child’s mother left them soon after his birth. When John is given only a few months left to live, he attempts to find a new, perfect family for Michael. Although initially certain of what he is looking for, John gradually becomes overwhelmed by doubts on the decision. How can he judge a family from a brief encounter? And does he know his own child well enough to make this choice for him? As John struggles to find the right answer to his impossible task, he comes to accept the help of a young social worker, opening himself to solutions he would never previously have considered. 

Uberto Pasolini worked for many years as a producer and executive before making the transition to directing. He started working in the industry in 1983, working in various roles at Columbia Pictures for ten years before founding his own company Red Wave Films. Among the films he produced at Red Wave was worldwide smash hit The Full Monty (1997). He directed his first film Machan in 2008 which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival; he won the best director prize in Venice’s Orizzonti section for his second film Still Life (2013) and his third Nowhere Special premiered in Venice in September 2020.