Claudio Torbinio

It is undoubtedly true that Soderbergh's film lends its side to accusations of heavy conservatism, because of the choice to use Gwyneth Paltrow's infidelity as a narrative vector (and of contagion) as a cause of the outbreak of the pandemic, to the fact that no institution presents shadows, and it is indeed the character of Jude Law, an alternative blogger, to be indicated as possible and probable collusion with shady movements related to treatments. But it is equally clear that the coldness and detachment of Contagion are the result of an over-objectivized attitude on the part of his director, of a desire to observe the story from the outside, to study the interactions and events as his scientists study the behavior of the virus under a microscope. For this reason there is no ethical or ideological position, but an observational practice of events which are however possible. There is, however, a clear fear of involvement. To get your hands dirty. To take a stand. Good or (perhaps above all) bad that he does to the film, is an indicative element of the times we are living.

Liberamente ispirato al romanzo più celebre dello scrittore americano Jack London, il Martin Eden di Pietro Marcello sposta l'azione da Oackland a Napoli, stratificando ulteriormente una vicenda che già nella narrazione originale mostrava infiniti livelli di lettura. La versione di Martin Eden realizzata da Pietro Marcello non perde la sua ambientazione storica dei primi del Novecento, anche se sceglie il capoluogo partenopeo (dove gira) invece della San Francisco in cui si svolge il libro, e l'intento di denuncia sociale.