There is a thin red thread that links some of the most interesting Italian cinematographic productions of the last decades. It is the thread of foresight, the ability to grasp in advance the signals of what will happen in our society. Signals that are sometimes disturbing, other times ironic, but always capable of making us reflect. In this National Day of Italian Cinema, we want to pay homage to 5 Italian films that have made a look to the future their stylistic hallmark.
Yes: we are not just Spaghetti-Westerns or Fellini: from grotesque satires to existential provocations, up to the “classic” dystopias about the future, these 5 Italian films (and others, of course) deserve to be rediscovered and reread today with new eyes. Ready? Darkness in the room.
A deadly game that anticipates reality shows
“The Tenth Victim” by Elio Petri, released in 1965, transports us to a dystopian future where a cruel game reigns: “The Hunt”, in which the participants are divided into hunters and prey, having to eliminate each other to obtain money and glory. With cutting irony, Petri stages a society accustomed to violence, anticipating the advent of modern reality shows and the spectacularization of death: a bit Alfonso Signorini, a bit Hunger Games.
Above all, 10 years before “Rollerball”, a warning about the direction our thirst for entertainment could (and could) take.
An Alien Look at Human Contradictions
A monumental one Hugh Gregoretti signed in 1963 “Omicron”, a science fiction satire in which an alien reincarnates in the body of a worker to study the human species. Through this “other” gaze, the film highlights with shrewd irony the distortions of the world of work and the social inequalities of Italy during the boom, anticipating themes such as exploitation and alienation that we will find in the workers' claims of the following years. A social critique disguised as a comedy of the absurd.
Youth Discomfort and Rebellion Against the System
“H2S” by Roberto Faenza, released in 1970, tells the story of a young man who rebels against a consumerist and dehumanizing society, reaching extreme gestures. The film, influenced by the climate of protest of the time (filming began in 1968), seems to predict the discomfort of future generations grappling with an increasingly technological and aseptic world.
Watching it again, older kids will see something from “A Clockwork Orange,” younger kids will see something from the “Severance” series. A warning cry about the possible consequences of a society that isolates the individual.
Human Machines and Technological Solitude
For the series “You deserve it, Alberto Sordi” (Nanni Moretti's line never aged worse), our Albertone directed and starred in 1980 “Me and Catherine”, a bittersweet comedy about a man who falls in love with a domestic robot. Between gags and melancholy, the film casts a prophetic glance at the risks of a future in which technology replaces human relationships.
The protagonist's loneliness reflects the alienation of a world hyperconnected but emotionally distant, a theme more relevant than ever in the era of social networks and artificial intelligence. And if we add the themes of algorithmic e humanoid robotics, we realize that it will be good to see even in many years.
Climate crisis and thirst for change
I conclude the little roundup of Italian films about the future with "Drought" by Paolo Virzì (2022), set in a future Rome brought to its knees by climate change. With its ensemble cast, the film explores the consequences of the environmental crisis on the lives of the protagonists, highlighting the contradictions of a society incapable of changing course. A powerful and visionary story about the risks we run if we do not face the ecological challenges of our time.
These 5 Italian films, although from different eras and styles, are united by the ability to anticipate trends and problems of the future. From unbridled consumerism to technological dehumanization, from media violence to the climate crisis, these are themes that today seem to us to be of burning relevance. Rediscovering these visionary films means not only paying homage to the intelligence of Italian cinema, but also drawing precious food for thought for the present. Because the future, sometimes, is already written on the screen.