Posted: 10/03/2010

David’s Birthday

by Sawyer J. Lahr

Milan-born Italian Writer/Director Marco Filiberti brings yet another operatic drama to the screen following his debut feature Adored: Diary of a Porn Star. Having garnered numerous awards internationally and selected for the 66th Venice Film Festival, David’s Birthday (2010) comes with a melodramatic surprise equal to I Am Love by burgeoning Italian director, Luca Guadagnino.

The high drama builds out of a man’s forbidden lust for his best friend’s twenty-something son David played by actual Armani, Valentino model, Thyago Alves. The adoring yet married psychiatrist, Matteo (Massimo Poggio), is always the onlooker, rarely the participant in life’s dramas. From the first scene at the Opera, he seems to be the only person amongst the two couples who is as deeply moved by tragedy when he has only yet to learn.

During the group vacation on the Mediterranean with his wife and friends, Matteo leaves once a week to treat a mother to an adult handicap son. She offers tragic-comic relief from the incessant marital drama of the vacationing couples.

The film earned it’s award for cinematography with ethereal shots that confuse the senses and make one question whether this is all just a fantasy. Filiberti had the perfect sea-side location to backdrop dark secrets, which surface in the heat of summer when reflection means more that just blinding sunlight hitting water.

Sawyer J. Lahr is Chief Editor of the forthcoming online publication, Go Over the Rainbow. He also writes a monthly film column for Mindful Metropolis, a conscious living magazine in Chicago, IL.

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