This afternoon I went to a small little boutique cinema to watch this Italian Film Festival film; L'uomo fiammifero, The Thin Match Man, directed by Marco Chiarini. I hadn't seen a subtitled film at the cinema in quite a while; and it was refreshing to watch something so magical, enhanced by the foreignness of it. The little childlike drawings and the use of text were brilliant; well worth watching this modern fairy-tale.
'Eleven-year-old Simone (Marco Leonzi) is forced to spend the entire summer indoors with a volatile widowed father (Francesco Pannofino) keeping track of him via a long string. Sweet adventure beckons outside, but through his enforced confinement Simone learns to entertain himself with stories of the thin-match-man, a figure his mother once created who lights the way for children facing difficulties.
Simone is determined to find the thin-match-man, but first he must overcome his father and the evil plotting of his spoiled neighbour, Rubino. When thirteen-year-old, green eyed Lorenza (Greta Castagna) arrives in town, Simone finds a new ally and so begins an unforgettable summer where real and imaginary encounters will change his life forever.'
