EUFF 2013: Volare Review

Volare The Great Story of Domenico Modungno

Volare – The Great Story of Domenico Modugno

A made for Italian TV look at one of the country’s most well known pop culture icons, Volare takes the name of singer Domenico Modugno’s best known worldwide hit (I think you can figure out which one) and takes a look at the life of the struggling artist through the 1950s and 60s.

A lifelong lover of cinema, but coming from a rural family too poor to help him pay for his film schooling, Domenico (played by dead ringer Beppe Fiorello) struggles to even get work as an actor or a singer/songwriter because of his use of dialect and typecasting based on his looks. With the help of the singer who would eventually become his lover and a former best friend and classmate who tends towards the bottle, Domenico rises above it all without giving up.

It’s pretty standard inspirational movie-of-the-week biopic stuff, but it’s well acted and crafted. It might only cover a relatively short period of his life (his childhood and his eventual foray into politics later in life are never covered since the success story is related to an audience at one of his shows in the 1970s), but what made him a legend in Italy is retained. It also takes its time before getting to Modugno’s success, but it never feels like a slow burn, and refreshingly the guy wasn’t so big of a saint that one would have to wait until after he hits it big to see his flaws.

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Screens

Saturday, November 16th, The Royal, 8:30pm



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