Nostalgia (2022 film)
| Nostalgia | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mario Martone |
| Screenplay by |
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| Based on | Nostalgia by Ermanno Rea |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Paolo Carnera |
| Edited by | Jacopo Quadri |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 117 minutes[1] |
| Countries |
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| Language | Italian |
| Box office | $3 million[2] |
Nostalgia is a 2022 drama film co-written and directed by Mario Martone, based on the 2016 novel by Ermanno Rea.
The film premiered in the official competition for Palme d'Or at the 75th Cannes Film Festival on 24 May 2022. The following month, the film won four Nastro d'Argento Awards, for Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Screenplay.[3] It was selected as the Italian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.
Plot
Felice returns to his hometown of Naples to visit his ill mother after spending 40 years living in Egypt,[4] where he also converted to Islam, and married an Egyptian woman.[4] Most of the film is set in the impoverished Rione Sanità area of Naples, where Felice first visits his mother and later meets local priest Don Luigi. Felice eventually tells Luigi in a sort of confession that in one of the petty thefts carried out by him and his childhood friend Oreste, the latter killed the owner of a local carpentry shop. Don Luigi throws him out of the church, telling him that Oreste had in the meantime risen to become a dangerous boss of the Camorra, the local organized crime syndicate.
A friend of Felice's mother warns him of danger and urges him to escape from Naples. Don Luigi then introduces Felice to a Camorra family, and during dinner he drinks wine for the very first time, becomes uninhibited, and talks about his childhood spent with Oreste, making everyone speechless. At this point Felice goes to visit the aged Oreste. Oreste, angry because of his friend's abandonment four decades earlier, follows him into an alley, kills him and steals his wallet – and finds inside an old photo of the two of them on a motorbike.
Cast
- Pierfrancesco Favino as Felice Lasco
- Emanuele Palumbo as young Felice
- Francesco Di Leva as Father Luigi Rega
- Tommaso Ragno as Oreste Spasiano
- Artem Tkachuk as young Oreste
- Aurora Quattrocchi as Teresa Lasco
- Daniela Ioia as young Teresa
- Sofia Essaïdi as Arlette
- Nello Mascia as Raffaele
- Salvatore Striano as Gegé
- Virginia Apicella as Adele
Release
Nostalgia had its world premiere in the official competition for Palme d'Or at the 75th Cannes Film Festival on 24 May 2022.[1][4] The film was released in Italy on 25 May 2022 and in France on 4 January 2023.[2][5] It was released theatrically in the United States on 20 January 2023 by Breaking Glass Pictures.[6]
Reception
Box office
Nostalgia grossed $3 million worldwide, including $1.5 million in Italy and $1.2 million in France.[2]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Walking the tightrope between gangster drama and character study, Nostalgia takes us through the criminal underbelly of Naples in search of a past that may be better left behind."[7]On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 75, based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[8]
Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter praised acting performances by Favino and Ragno, Martone's direction and Paolo Carnera's camerawork, calling it a "surprisingly absorbing film" but adding that its exploration of nostalgia "gets telegraphed to the point of exhaustion."[4] Peter Bradshaw's review in The Guardian described the film as "tremendously shot and terrifically acted," adding that the film "challenges the idea of nostalgia as broadcast in the title: it isn't simply that nostalgia is delusional, or that the past wasn't as great as it appears when viewed through rose-tinted spectacles. It is that there is no past and present."[9]
Accolades
Nostalgia was released in Italy just in time to qualify for the annual 2022 Nastro d'Argento (Silver Ribbon) Awards handed out by the Italian national association of film critics SNGCI, in a ceremony held on 20 June 2022 at the MAXXI museum in Rome, where it received seven nominations and four wins.
These included Best Actor award for Favino—his fifth Silver Ribbon in that category, making him one of the most acclaimed Italian actors in history–and Best Director for Martone, who received the accolade for his work on both Nostalgia and his earlier film The King of Laughter (Qui rido io) released in September 2021.
The film was also screened at the Motovun Film Festival in July 2022, where it competed for the main award, the Propeller of Motovun.
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cannes Film Festival | 28 May 2022 | Palme d'Or | Mario Martone | Nominated | [4] |
| Silver Ribbon Awards | 20 June 2022 | Best Film | Nominated | [3] | |
| Best Director | Mario Martone | Won | |||
| Best Actor | Pierfrancesco Favino | Won | |||
| Best Screenplay | Mario Martone and Ippolita di Majo | Won | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Francesco Di Leva and Tommaso Ragno | Won | |||
| Best Supporting Actress | Aurora Quattrocchi | Nominated | |||
| Best Sound | Nominated | ||||
| Motovun Film Festival | 2 August 2022 | Best Film | Mario Martone | Nominated |
See also
- List of submissions to the 95th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
- List of Italian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film
References
- ^ a b "Nostalgia". Cannes Film Festival. 24 May 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
- ^ a b c "Nostalgia (2022)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
- ^ a b D'Amico, Valentina (21 June 2022). "Nastri d'Argento 2022: Bellocchio, Sorrentino e Martone tra i vincitori". MoviePlayer.it (in Italian). Retrieved 15 August 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Gyarkye, Lovia (24 May 2022). "'Nostalgia': Film Review | Cannes 2022". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
- ^ "Nostalgia (2022) – Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
- ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (20 December 2022). "'Nostalgia' Trailer: Past Meets Present In Mario Martone's Italian Oscar Submission". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
- ^ "Nostalgia". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
- ^ "Nostalgia". Metacritic. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
- ^ Bradshaw, Peter (26 May 2022). "Nostalgia review – bittersweet crime yarn also homecoming love-letter to Naples". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 August 2022.