The 1 percenters are everywhere. And the lure to be among them is just as universal. Paolo Virzi’s multi-viewpoint dissection of the Italian rich and famous and the wannabes clawing fast at their heels, Human Capital (2013), melodramatically twists and turns like that sweeping exterior double staircase to that eye-popping northern Italian McMansion. The flight of steps has room for those trying to elbow their way up, and plenty of space when they stumble down. Dino (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), wide-eyed with greed and aspiration, wants up. Rich magnate Giovanni (Fabrizio Gifuni) is eager for his investment, but isn’t about to make room for him anywhere near the top. Dino’s daughter has fallen for the rich man’s son, giving Dino entrée to this faux paradise but no sense of belonging.
Among the Berlusconi-era gargoyles, though, is Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s portrait of rich bored wife Carla, teetering on six-inch heels like her tenuous hold on life and her unconcerned husband. Status, conspicuous consumption and “Who killed the bicyclist?” get quite a workout in this adaptation of Stephen Amidon’s novel, originally set in the upper echelons of Connecticut. The New York Times called it “handsomely managed, polished and professional,” adding, “but the pieces are too neatly manufactured to feel as if anything is truly at stake.” Be that as it may, under cinematographers Jérôme Alméras and Simon Beaufils’s silky images, social climbing hasn’t looked this stylish and sadly comic since Fitzgerald.
7 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-639-7300 or visit www.mfah.org/films/human-capital. $9.
Fri., March 20, 7 p.m.; Sat., March 21, 7 p.m.; Sun., March 22, 5 p.m., 2015
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2015.
