Theater lovers and Italophiles alike should savor the documentary Spettacolo.
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Slant MagazineChristopher Gray
Slant MagazineChristopher Gray
Though some of Spettacolo's tension is superficial, the stuff of any let’s-put-on-a-show narrative, its latent anxieties are myriad and profoundly resonant.
Although Spettacolo is thoughtful and charming throughout, it’s mildly disappointing that the film doesn’t further engage with the self-reflexivity of the annual event itself.
75
RogerEbert.comNick Allen
RogerEbert.comNick Allen
It is a touching document of seemingly regular people who yearn to keep an artistic tradition alive.
Though at its core the film is about a dying way of life, the location and photography here are so beguiling that they semi-perversely encourage just the kind of foreign tourism that factors into that slow death.
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The Film Stage
The Film Stage
If Spettacolo has a significant flaw, it is in the somewhat pedestrian and placid manner in which it is constructed. There is the feeling that the directors see the play as a vehicle in order to explore the town as a whole, which does allow for some lovely moments of contemplation but makes the film less focused and motivated as a whole.