Ravenna Nightmare opens its programming with a spectacular Author Preview the film / documentary They Shall Not Grow Old (Per Semper Giovani), Saturday 23 October
Like every year, a spectacular film introduces viewers to a new edition of the Ravenna Nightmare Film Fest. Exactly one week after the opening of the doors at the Palazzo dei Congressi and Cinema Di Ravenna, the screening of a grande Author preview with Peter Jackson’s masterpiece: They shall not grow old – Forever young. The Oscar-winning New Zealand director is best known to the general public for his Lord of the Rings trilogy.
It is a documentary so extraordinarily evocative that it can be equated to a real war movie. Released in theaters in February 2018, the work represents a heartfelt and moving tribute by the filmmaker to the centenary of the end of the First World War (1914-1918).
Ravenna Nightmare Fest 2021: opens with Peter Jackson’s masterpiece
An intense documentary that in 100 minutes shows an unprecedented perspective on the life of the soldiers sent to the front and their unawareness of such a tragic situation. Over a period of about 4 years, from the outbreak of the war to its end in 1918, Jackson offers a look at the life and everyday life of these young people, from the darkest moments to moments of leisure. Shot between the avant-garde and the trenches, the film offers an authentic and crude testimony of how terrible and alienating war can be. An epochal work that of the New Zealand director, very long and meticulous that leads to a masterpiece made possible also thanks to the availability and collaboration of the Imperial War Museum and the BBC historical archive.
A veritable mine of repertoire material, restored and largely unpublished, shot during the war and embellished with the original commentary of the veterans themselves. The protagonists of the plot are the soldiers of the British army, the boys forever young, who will never be able to grow old due to a war that will take a huge toll in terms of lives.
Thanks to the more than 600 films available, Peter Jackson does a maniacal job, changes the formats of the films, assembles the images, double the scenes by adding background sounds and interpreting the lips of the soldiers and colors every single frame. The result is commendable for effort, commitment and care; from the red of the blood to the green of the nerve gas it is now possible to grasp and appreciate the drama of every single moment.
In They Shall Not Grow Old Jackson gradually shifts the scene from England, the place of departure, to Belgium, the future battlefield. Initially marked by black and white the departure of the soldiers, monochrome is progressively replaced by color as the battalion progresses into Flanders but, at the same time, plot and film darken. A masterpiece to be seen absolutely.
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