Thank goodness for Italian films given all the puerile rubbish churned out by Hollywood these days. A diet of endless Marvel spin-offs where acting and scripts take a back seat to technology and special effects provides for very superficial entertainment indeed.
The Shadow of the Day however is good old fashioned film-making at its best that relies on an excellent screenplay, intelligent acting and sensitive direction; how could it be otherwise with a budget of under 3 million euros?
The director, Giuseppe Piccioni, wrote most of the script some 15 years before making the film and it languished in his desk drawer; it was only when various of his other ideas found little interest among producers during the greenlighting process that it re-emerged as the favorite.
Those amongst you who have seen Una Giornata Particolare (A Special Day) won't be surprised to know that Piccioni himself is happy to acknowledge the thematic similarity between the two films and he is a great admirer of the director Ettore Scola. Both films are set in the late 1930s and both films have an important connection to their directors. Ettore Scola was a small child witnessing Hitler's visit to Rome in 1938 that provides the backdrop to Una Giornata Particolare and Giuseppe Piccione was born and raised in Ascoli Piceno where L'Ombra del Giorno is set.
The similarities don't end there because both films are essentially stories of unrequited love between dual protagonists and the drama in both films is largely confined to one building, in this case the restaurant, its cellar and the room above where Luciano lives.
The Piazza del Popolo in Ascoli Piceno was an inspired choice for the setting. It has a timeless quality that suits the mood of the film and Caffè Meletti* is perfect as the restaurant. Just like the director, Elena has a very personal connection to the Piazza del Popolo because her grandparents met in this square and her late father was born 90 years ago in a house just around the corner. Our visit to the Caffè Meletti several years ago was a nostalgic trip for her father to a place that his parents used to come for coffee not many years after it first opened in 1907.
Luciano is played by Riccardo Scamarcio, a surprising choice perhaps given some of his other roles but fully justified by his mature, restrained and subtle performance. Piccioni commented wryly and perhaps even a little unfairly that, having recently turned 40, Scamarcio decided to become a serious actor. Playing opposite Scamarcio in the role of Anna and providing most of the surprises in the plot is the actress Benedetta Porcaroli, a rising star in Italian cinema whose performance is the equal of Scamarcio.
Scamarcio's production company Lebowski co-produced the film with Rai Cinema, and Piccioni had to persuade Scamarcio that Ascoli Piceno was a better location than the first choice of Rome. Piccioni wanted to show how the slow poison of fascism in a small town where everyone knew each other pitted former friends and acquaintances against each other, especially after the watershed moment in November 1938 when Italy enacted the first anti-Jewish Racial Laws.
When talking about the meaning and relevance of the film in today's world Piccioni spoke about the importance of 'il dubbio' (doubt), ie. the sense of maintaining a healthy skepticism about what a government or a consensus is telling you. Ironically this film was shot during the height of the Covid lockdowns in the first few months of 2021 when just about every government was busy suppressing any and all doubts about the efficacy of vaccines or the transmission conditions of the virus while at the same time censoring social media channels that were platforms for legitimate scientific debate.
L'Ombra del Giorno was nominated for various awards both in Italy and abroad and garnered prominent reviews and prizes at film festivals in Europe, the US and Australia.
*for those familiar with the sweet anise liqueur meletti from le Marche, the name of the Caffè Meletti is no coincidence because the drink's inventor, Silvio Meletti, purchased the building in 1905 and after two years of work creating the Liberty style interior and neoclassical façade, the Caffè Meletti was officially opened in 1907. The original ceiling frescoes were plastered over at this time but rediscovered when the building was restored in 1988 after being closed for several years.
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