IL GIOVANE FAVOLOSO or LEOPARDI in English is the sad but true tale of one of Italy's greatest poets, GIACOMO LEOPARDI of the 19th Century, a man so intelligent as to read and write GREEK and LATIN while still a teen. Like Mozart he was a prodigy; Like Mozart he suffered the same fate. The film played The 71st Venice Film Festival where it won 3 Awards including Best Actor for ELIO GERMANO as the poet. It played TIFF in September 2014 where it was such a pleasure to see this stunning bio-pic. I studied Leopardi in depth as an undergraduate and my knowledge of the man and his writings were all up on the screen. In fact. Writer/Director Martone took all his inspiration from the poems and large correspondence of Leopardi who happened to be born more than slightly deformed and sickly. NOTHING IS INVENTED LIKE THE HUNDRED UPON HUNDREDS OF HOLLYWOOD BIO-PICS. Constricted IN LIFE by severe parents and his own physical impediments life was hell for the young man. Would he ever know or find LOVE? Would he ever be able to escape the noble family in which he was born? These and more questions will be answered by this VERY TRUTHFUL FILM. One of the real treasures of the film, was discovering some little known facts of the genius Leopardi which completed my idea of who this great man was, a man considered SECOND only to DANTE as Italy's greatest lyric poet. The innate misery and dejection of a soul so great as Leopardi's will bring a tear to your eye as will the physical suffering. The film is beyond moving and definitively proves for me, at any rate: THAT NOT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL! This was the big surprise for me at TIFF 2014.
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