Credits

SUBJECT:

PHILIPPE BLASBAND

SCREENPLAY:

PHILIPPE BLASBAND, MARTIN HERRON

DIRECTION:

SAM GARBARSKI

PRODUCED BY:

ENTRE CHIEN ET LOUP, IPSO FACTO, LIAISON CIN?MATOGRAPHIQUE, PALLAS FILM, SAMSA FILM, HALLE/SAALE

DISTRIBUTED BY:

TEODORA FILM

ITALIAN EDITION:

FONO ROMA

ITALIAN DIALOGUES:

MARCO METE

DUBBING DIRECTION:

MARCO METE

DUBBING SOUND TECNICIAN:

STEFANO NISSOLINO

SOUND MIXER TECHNICIAN:

FRANCO CORATELLA

Voices:

MARIANNE FAITHFULL:

PAILA PAVESE

MIKI MANOJLOVIC:

NINO PRESTER

KEVIN BISHOP:

NANNI BALDINI

SIOBHAN HEWLETT:

BARBARA DE BORTOLI

Italian dialogue				2,5
Dubbing direction				3

Irina Palm
Belgium/France/Germany/GB/ Luxembourg 2007

Sixty year old Maggie, in order to help her grandson who needs expensive medical cures and not being able to find a job, resorts to masturbating men in a porn club in Soho. She can only win from this experience: self respect, money for the cure, the reputation of being the best right hand in London, the loss of false friends, the affection of her daughter-in-law and finally the love of the “manager” of the club, a good looking, brooding man with a tender heart.

A delicate film which originates from a small idea and develops it with lightness, transforming the situation's obvious vulgarity into the natural normality of life, that sex, also paid sex, encompasses just like any illness, the need for money, the difficulty that an older woman faces in gaining a loan and in getting a job.

The Italian dubbing presents some excellent elements alongside some slip ups. The dialogue is in general discreet without large moments of merit and with one too many superficialities with gags thrown in without any link to the one before or the one after as though the script writing has not been seen to with due care and attention. An example: before the final reconciliation, Maggie's son discovers his mother's secret job and predictably has a bout of anger during which, amongst other things, he says : "Non capisco perché mia madre sia una puttana" (I don't understand why my mum's a whore) and "Negli ultimi cinque anni mi vogliono tutti comandare" (for the last five years everyone has been ordering me around). In the first sentence, the affected use of the subjunctive (apart from the fact that Maggie is not a prostitute), besides being useless, clashes greatly with the evident class extraction of the character; in the second line, an incomprehensible piece of information (the last five years) opens up an unnatural syntactic construction which renders the state of alteration of the character unbelievable and the spectator immediately doesn't participate in the situation. A similarly rather banal and unsuccessful solution is "gomito da seghista" (wanker's elbow) to define the inflammatory pathology which affects the lady masturbator after her first tries.

As far as the voices are concerned, Nino Prester is an excellent choice and gives a great interpretation and often steals the show from the main character by building a vaguely exotic, extremely fascinating and very human Miki. Nanni Baldini's interpretation is very good and also that of Barbara De Bortoli whilst that of Paila Pavese is absolutely not of the same level having created a toneless character in which the innocence, the distance from certain aspects in life are transformed into an inexpressiveness which at times borders on idiocy and does not give justice to Marianne Faithfull's sensitive interpretation.

[original review in Italian by Giovanni Rampazzo]