Incantato (2003)

INCANTATO is a dazzling comedy with a poignant streak set in the Rome and Bologna of the 1920s. It tells the story of Nello Balocchi 35 a shy and clumsy man devoted to the academic world sent by his father a pragmatic businessman and womanizer who happens to be the Pope's tailor to teach at a high school in Bologna in the hope that living in such an emancipated city will allow him to find a wife at last thus giving the family its eagerly awaited heir.On reaching Bologna Nello goes to live in a pensione run by Arabella where he shares a room with a Neapolitan barber thanks to whose advice he gradually gets to know the fairer sex. While he discovers that he has a great talent for teaching the search for a soul mate is unsuccessful. Until the day he finds himself at a tea dance in a home for blind women by chance or sent there by Providence. There Nello meets a femme fatale Angela Gardini the most beautiful and open-minded young woman in all Bologna who turns his life upside down.This marks the start of an unusual relationship between the candid inexperienced man and the gorgeous woman who has lost her eyesight in an accident. An unpredictable love story between two "outsiders". © Artistic LicenseSystem Requirements:Running Time: 103 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 720917548821 Manufacturer No: FLV5488 Product Description

A well-directed, beautifully shot really bad soap opera (spoliers inside)

I am Italian, and I loved the way Bologna is shot in this movie (Bologna is a beautiful city between Florence and Venice which deserves more attention from tourists than it currently has). It is clear that there was a good director behind this movie. However, the story is very very soap opera-like and the main characters' acting is stunningly inept.

The "love" story is really a one-sided thing between Nello, one of the dumbest characters you will ever see on screen and Angela, a beautiful but shallow and ruthlessly manipulative woman. Even in a movie world where love is blind (pun not intended) the dumbness of Nello is astounding. The fact that his love is purely due to Angela's appearance makes his character even less likable. He just deserves what he gets, and he's even happy at the end.

But the unlikeable two main characters and the annoying "love story" are not the worst thing of this movie. There are, after all, several exceptional movies centered around unlikable characters. The acting is what's really terrible here. Minor characters are, in most cases, played very well but serious actors (Angela and Nello's fathers, the director of the school where Nello teaches). But Nello and Angela are impersonated by stunningly bad actors. Incontrada, not being Italian, has been dubbed, and unfortunately the woman who gives Angela her voice is as bad as she could be. She delivers every sentence as if she were in a soap commercial.

I love well-made Italian movies based on small, personal stories, and I loved the images of Italy in this one, but I really cannot recommend "Incantato" at all, and indeed I am somewhat surprised by the positive reviews I found here. June 5, 2008

Romantic Love in Incantato

Incantato is a marvelousl movie about how love can transform us and make us a better person. It is the story of Nello, a thirty five year old professor of Latin and Greek. A lonely bachelor, his father and mother push him to leave his native Rome and to go to Bologna with the hope of finding a soul mate. With a series of comic miscalculations and flip flops, Nello finally encounters his dream woman in a clinic for the blind. Angela, a beautiful woman from the upper class is the incarnation of all of Nello's dreams. However, her father and others warn Nello that Angela is not suited for him but he persists. Another touching subplot is how the quiet, unassuming Nello captivates his students in his Latin class with his daring interpretations of love poems and his defiance of the State's boring curriculum. Beautifully photographed, with a lush romantic soundtrack, Incantato is surely a wonderful movie about love, passion and heartbreak. February 8, 2008

Incantato

It,s a good movie, excellent play and interesting the subject. My only problem was that it is so sad, almost like the Postino. But that does not decrease the artistic value January 25, 2008

Sometimes, love is an elusive personage!

This is essentially, a lesson of life instead a love story. The main feature is a very talented profesor who dominates in notable extent Latin language as well as classics such as Virgilio and lucrecio among others. He is a very shy man who having reached his 35 still have not gotten a couple worthy of his affection, until that day comes, when a blind woman will engage and inspire in him the best of his feelings. There is a notable appearing of Giannini as his father, sailor of several Popes, who makes a terrfic performance spicing the movie of deserved status.

But additionally the impressive beauty of+this new Goddess of the Italian cinema Vanessa Incontrada, is a very important factor to take it into account.

The secondary roles work out at perfection, Avati immerses the spectator and handles the camera as a silent witness to make us to know those intimate and unsaid details behind stages.

This a priceless author piece that must be seen, and I am very glad because after a decade of modest proposals, Italy seems to reencounter with itself as a real market of artistic possibilities and new stories to tell and enjoy.

After you leave the cinema hall, you will remind that smart reflection of Balzac: "The love: the eternal toy that women pretend to give and men to deserve." July 11, 2007

An old fashioned love story

There are so many reasons why this is a great film. The hero of the story is a 35 year old man who is attracted to women but
extremely shy of them. His father, the tailor to the Catholic Pope, is very sexual so he cannot understand what the problem is with his son. Nevertheless, he directs him to go to Bologna in the 1920's where the man teaches Greek and Latin to students preparing for university. At a chance encounter, he discovers a beautiful woman without sight who enchants him. He falls in love at first glance.

My favorite part of the movie is the love scene. I have NEVER seen one done properly with an extremely shy man experiencing his first sexual encounter. Too often a film will treat the encounter comically not romantically. The scene is touching, sensitive, and erotic. This European director gets it right.

Finally, the cinematography is gorgeous, particularly the scenes of glittering palaces and restaurants in Italy. In my book the movie is a winner. May 30, 2006

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