Adapted from a 1909 novel by Jack London yet set in a provocatively unspecified moment in Italy’s history, MARTIN EDEN is a passionate and enthralling narrative fresco in the tradition of the great Italian classics. Martin (played by the marvelously committed Luca Marinelli) is a self-taught proletarian with artistic aspirations who hopes that his dreams of becoming a writer will help him rise above his station and marry a wealthy young university student (Jessica Cressy). The dissatisfactions of working-class toil and bourgeois success lead to political awakening and destructive anxiety in this enveloping, superbly mounted bildungsroman.
5 day rental • NR • 129 min. • Italian with subtitles
“Critic’s Pick! Audacious and thrilling... An ingenious adaptation of the Jack London novel... pure cinema.”
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The New York Times
"Essentially experimental, [Pietro] Marcello assembles this movie as a collage of imagery and topical themes that are cleverly hooked into a driving central narrative."
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Shadows on the Wall
"Packed with a cosmos's volume of emotion and life, that it is as epic as any Sergio Leone or David Lean film."
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Film Inquiry
"Wealthy decadence, left-wing politics, angry speeches (in Italian!), beautiful women, square-jawed men, quotations from Baudelaire... Everything I love in movies, more or less."
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A. O. Scott, The New York Times
“Gorgeous, intellectually rousing classical filmmaking... with a star-making performance from Luca Marinelli.”
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Los Angeles Times
“This could be the international break-out of the season.”
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The Film Stage