The unresolved childhood grief of losing one’s mother is given a quiet, sentimental treatment by Bellocchio whose film is polished enough though it falls short of being truly insightful.
Review #2,666
Dir. Marco Bellocchio
2016 | Italy | Drama | 131 min | 2.35:1 | Italian & French
Not rated – likely to be PG13 for some strong thematic material
Cast: Valerio Mastandrea, Berenice Bejo, Guido Caprino
Plot: Massimo’s idyllic childhood is shattered by the death of his mother. Years later, he is forced to relive his traumatic past and compassionate doctor Elisa could help him open up and confront his childhood wounds.
Awards: Official Selection – Directors’ Fortnight (Cannes)
International Sales: The Match Factory
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Mother-Child Relationship; Childhood Trauma
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: MUBI
Spoilers: No
This is a mid-tier film from Marco Bellocchio, one of Italy’s veteran filmmakers still working prolifically into the 21st century. Since turning 60 in 1999, he has made more than a dozen feature films, a testament to his longevity.
In Sweet Dreams, he explores the theme of losing a loved one, a topic that culminates somewhat in his most personal film, the documentary Marx Can Wait (2021), about the untimely death of his brother many decades ago.
A young boy loses his mother and grows up psychologically affected. Suffering from bouts of panic attacks in his adulthood, Massimo has to find a way to resolve his childhood grief.
Told non-linearly across various periods of Massimo’s life, including his job as a journalist, Bellocchio’s film doesn’t feel like it really benefits from this structure, and appears more unfocused than not.
“The only way to get an answer is to keep asking the question.”
Still, there is a note of quiet sentimentality as Massimo is faced with the prospect of returning to his now-empty family home to pack up and sell off the house.
An interesting element that Bellocchio introduces is his intercutting of old clips from a late-night horror serial, Belphegor (a 3½-hour French silent film from 1927!), that Massimo and his mother used to watch together.
Seeking refuge in the phantom-like titular character, Massimo’s fear of it is supplanted by his fear of loss after his mother’s death.
Overall, Sweet Dreams is typically polished in the contemporary Italian ‘biopic’ sort of way though it falls short of being truly insightful thematically.
Grade: B-
Trailer:
Eternality Tan 