Am Ende des Tages

At first glance Verso Sera (Towards Nightfall) seems to have a lot going for it, beginning with excellent actors Marcello Mastroianni and Sandrine Bonnaire. Both of these performers are familiar to American fans of European cinema who have enjoyed their many performances over the years. The theme of the conflict between leftists of different generations is fascinating and the writers of this film have clearly made an effort to capture this conflict, including its more subtle aspects, in the dialog. Despite the interesting dialog, however, I found the plot and character development to be flawed.

The characters are not convincing as human beings. Mastroianni and Bonnaire's characters function only as symbols for the two different generations. As such, they are created as extreme opposites, with the result that each seems almost a caricature of what he/she is supposed to represent. Their actions often seem abrupt and inexplicable because these actions are simply devices for illustrating the generational conflict. Mastroianni and Bonnaire do their best with the material. Bonnaire's character ultimately shows more complexity, while Mastroianni's remains a boring cipher of a man. In this movie, one is not allowed to be a socialist and be an interesting person at the same time.

The actors playing the maid and Mastroianni's son overact their roles and are given to excessive facial gestures such as grimacing which seems more appropriate to the stage than to film.

Finally, the sound -- including dialog, and ambient sounds -- appears to have been overdubbed which gives the film an artificial quality. The credit music has a raucous quality and feels jarringly inappropriate.

Verso Sera has a very interesting and historically significant story to tell, the subject matter deserves film studio treatment.