Thoughts from the committee
Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Jack London, Pietro Marcello’s adaptation of Martin Eden is an enthralling and poetic tale of artistic ambition. Marcello transplants the action from the novel’s original location – Oakland, California – to the director’s native Naples. This allows him to provide the detail and texture of everyday life, while retaining the epic scope of the novel’s romance, class struggle, and aspiration.
Many have tackled the rags-to-riches story before, and at first the plot might feel familiar: a sailor is introduced to the world of the wealthy after an incident which shows the strength of his moral calibre. What is slightly unusual is the path our hero takes: a romantic ideal of being a writer. Unusual, also, is the way in which Marcello shows us both the ascent to Martin’s goals, and also the rapid descent.
Marcello uses a wealth of different materials to immerse us in the story, from traditional narrative and documentary formats, to archival footage, decayed celluloid, fresh 16-mm imagery. The film was partly overlooked due to its release in the pandemic years, but is very much worth discovering now. With an award-winning lead performance from Luca Marinelli, and a unique visual imagination that channels both Italian neorealism and the French New Wave, you’ll feel the twin satisfactions of seeing an incredible film and reading a classic novel.
“Marcello’s approach is nuanced but unambiguous: By allowing time to fold in on itself, engaging history itself as his subject, he speaks as much to the present as to the past.” – Justin Chang, The Los Angeles Times