This fiction feature debut follows a scandalous son of a physician turned adventurer in spite of himself.
The two Italian filmmakers Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, who make their fiction feature debut with “The Tale of King Crab,” are clearly attracted to loners. Their 2015 documentary feature “Il Solengo” explores the world of a real-life contemporary hermit. “King Crab” begins in the same hunting lodge that figured in “Il Solengo” and their 2013 documentary short “Belva Nera.” Here, a group of aging men share a meal and talk about an old story, one of “princes and poor people.”
The movie shifts to an unspecified time in the late 19th century, and a small town, where Luciano, the adult son of a local physician, is a prominent scandal: He guzzles wine at a local tavern and talks back at the cops who sit at his table and needle him. He lazily courts the daughter of a dyspeptic farmer. “Here’s a coin,” he says to a tavern owner. “It’s worthless to me. I want to live as I please.”
Luciano is played by Gabrielle Silli; in the movie’s first half, he has an outgrown beard that draws out, rather than obscures, his doleful blue eyes. His mien can sometimes remind one of Donald Sutherland or Peter Dinklage. Even when he’s offscreen, his presence cloaks the movie.
After Luciano commits a destructive act, the movie’s action shifts to the tail end of South America. The exiled Luciano is here, spruced up and on the hunt for treasure, aided, perhaps improbably to some, by — yes — a king crab. The movie’s depictions of landscapes both sere and fertile, and its all-but-palpable portrayals of isolation, have echoes of the best work of Werner Herzog and Lucrecia Martel. But de Righi and Zoppis here show more genuine affinity than affected influence; they’re moviemakers worth keeping an eye on.
The Tale of King Crab
Not rated. In Italian and Spanish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
