Notturno (2020) - Gianfranco Rosi

Rosi's expansive, empathetic gaze exhibits the tranquil beauty of the natural world while slowly descending into the horrors brought and inflicted by man on a region and the reverberating trauma, displacement, and dissonance which have embedded themselves into the social fabric. A beautifully composed documentary feature, with Notturno, Gianfranco Rosi continues to show an uncanny ability to invoke intimacy thru expanse. Wide lenses immerse the viewer in the spatiality of which he documents, yet an astute eye is constantly repositioning itself through the use of tighter compositions that capture intimate, human moments that so effectively elicit the emotional response which the filmmaker is trying to achieve.  In particular, juxtaposition serves Rosi well.  The innocent face of a child interweaved with weapons of war.  A tranquil lake enveloped by conflict in the distant horizon.  These visual constructions are deployed to effectively craft a dichotomy between the day-to-day tedium and their larger spatiality, one which seems to consistently build with uncertainty and conflict.  Rosi's films always feel calculated yet spontaneous - the oscillation between expansive and intimate compositions perhaps one of the keys to his cinematic language in which simple moments feel revelatory and expansive nature of existence is felt.  While relatively free from the strictures of narrative, Notturno does employ a clever device to keep the film's intention pointed - A small stage play production by a group of locals provides a structural framework for the filmmaker's proclivities towards observational candor.  Progressively dire about the denigration inflicted on the people of this region, Rosi's film is pointed yet observational - a haunting elegy for a people still caught in the prongs of instability, suppression, and violence.​