If the Berlinale opened with Small Things Like These featuring a somber Irish convent where unwed mothers-to-be were punished and humiliated, bringing up the rear of the German festival’s offbeat competition section is Gloria!, a fantasy about an Italian orphanage of 1800 populated by spunky girl musicians. Its joyous, upbeat tone and improbable story, full of twists and resounding victories for the female sex, divided Berlin viewers into decisive yeas or nays. Since you don’t have to please all the people all the time, those strong feelings will probably translate into theatrical play down the line, as well as invitations to festivals looking for an uplifting costume romp as a change of pace.
Gloria! – the exclamation point suspiciously pings a distant memory of Mamma Mia! – is chock full of music and youthful romance, though a far cry from Phyllida Lloyd’s 2008 romcom megahit. Instead of comedy, the tone veers toward a time-warp fairy tale in which modern musical harmonies appear two centuries early, thanks to the genius of a quiet young maid and the appearance of one of the first pianos.
Director Margherita Vicario is a young Italian singer-songwriter whose small body of music videos have developed a following for their cheeriness and their progressive, anti-racist messaging. This spirit rubs off in her feature debut, which is set in the run-down old Sant’Ignazio musical institute near Venice. It is run by the Church, where girls of genteel birth board and are tutored in choral singing, and where they learn to master the musical instruments of the era, from violas to harpsichords.
One day a wealthy patron of Sant’Ignazio informs the old chapel master Perlina (Paolo Rossi) that the newly elected Pope will honor the institute with a visit, for which a brand new composition is required. This puts Perlina in a bind, since his imagination and talent both ran out some time ago. One of the young women, Lucia (Carlotta Gamba), could help him with composing, but the cantankerous maestro prefers to make his arrangements with a man, through the mediation of a handsome young wastrel he pays for his favors.
So the real world is cruel and shuts talented women out, “like pressed flowers are hidden away in the pages of history,” the director has written. But there is always fantasy to come to the rescue of a story that up to this point feels like pretty standard Italian TV fare. Just in time, the mute little maid Teresa (Galatéa Bellugi) goes to the basement and discovers that a new-fangled music-maker called the pianoforte has been delivered for the Pope’s visit. All she has to do is tinkle the ivories and voilà — move over Martha Argerich! — her previously unsuspected musical talent explodes. She not only plays the highly formalized chamber music of the time, but throws in jazz and pop tunes written by Vicario and Davide Pavanello for the film. Even Mozart couldn’t do that.
It’s a reach but the musical sessions are so well handled that, for most audiences, the fantasy should work. It all leads up to a wild finale in the chapel in the presence of the Pontiff, where all hell breaks out when the girls turn their violins, cellos and of course the piano loose on a mixed audience of peasants and ecclesiastics.
The young women are finely distinguished in Vicario and Anita Rivaroli’s screenplay, each carrying a sad backstory and an apparently dismal future. While Bellugi’s wise eyes hide her suffering at being separated from her small son, who she was forced to give up when he was born, the fiery red-haired Gamba plunges into a love affair with a boy whose parents don’t consider her a match, and so on. As the chapel master, well-known comic Paolo Rossi makes a gruff, harmless villain who could pass for Mick Jagger after a rough night.
Visually, the feeling of old Venice is recreated by Gianluca Rocco Palma’s carefully studied lighting, bringing the period décor and costumes to life in the painterly manner of the late 18th century.
Director: Margherita Vicario
Screenwriters: Anita Rivaroli, Margherita Vicario
Producers: Valeria Jamonte, Manuela Melissano, Carlo Cresto-Dina, Paolo del Brocco
Coproducer: Katrin Renz
Cast: Galatéa Bellugi, Carlotta Gamba, Veronica Lucchesi, Maria Vittoria Dallasta, Sara Mafodda, Paolo Rossi, Elio, Vincenzo Crea, Natalino Balasso, Anita Kravos, Jasmin Mattei
Cinematography: Gianluca Rocco Palma
Production design: Luca Servino, Susanna Abenavoli
Costume design: Mary Montalto
Editing: Christian Marsiglia
Music: Margherita Vicario, Davide Pavanello
Sound: Daniela Bassani
Production companies: Tempesta (Italy) with Rai Cinema (Italy), in association with Tellfilm (Switzerland)
World sales: Rai Cinema International
In Italian
106 minutes
