the broken circle

The “Broken circle” is the representation of a weird unbelievable nightmare which becomes reality even against the will of their own creators. It is the painful awareness of how a society, aiming at the materialization of dreams at any price, succeeds in producing frustrated persons who commit themselves to destruction and self-destruction just for the sake of emerging as heroes or anti-heroes inside their circle of reference. The need of religiousness of the characters crossing a sort of cultural “zero level”, becomes true in the ideation of a kind of tribal ritual identifying value in the body sacrifice a “membership”. The subject of the film questions not only about children looking for identity, but also about “fathers” overwhelmed by their work and often guilty of indifference and superficiality.
The stylistic code.
The stylistic choice is mainly focused on the aspects of emotional detachment, with an attitude that is more focused on describing the mechanics of facts than providing a judgment.
The first part of the film is the prelude subsuming to Andrea’s dissolution. Through his personal experience, emerges a realistic example of a loss of awareness sinking in the group and pairing with the physical loss of his “look”.
In the second part of the film, devoted to the ideation of dining events, just Fabio and his crime partner rule and lead the movie. In the end Chiara’s arrival acts as a further turnover. Andrea gets aware of his sentimental humanity and consequently takes possession again of his own “look”.
The background.
The story takes place in the surroundings of Padova (Padua) in an urban context where, near to a vague reminiscence of a recent economic development, grey buildings and anonymous small houses keep pointing out the provincial atmosphere of modern days. From the stylistic viewpoint, there is an emerging contrast among chaotic areas, colourful and smart discotheques alternated to the intimacy of candlelight dinners, a sort of sacred ritual is set up, underlined by the plainest chromatic choices and by a certain solemn symmetry. The obsessive repetition of scenes tied to the “sballo” (the groove, the buzz) rite, happening in night-clubs, in baths and in parking places underlines the mechanics of an everyday squalor that suddenly aspires to “be dignified” in the” mythical” experience of ritual dining events.
The banality of the exterior locations, often hidden by the Veneto countryside fog, gives suddenly place to the affluent and glazed interiors of Fabio’s home, where the characters display smart and exclusive looks; showing a sort of common style which never succeeds in masking the emptiness of their lives.
The last scene, a hint to Luis Buñuel and the symbolism of the sacrificial animal, re-enters into the purpose of closing the film with an open question.