TIFF 2019: The Plight Of The Dreamer In Pietro Marcello’s MARTIN EDEN

Pietro Marcello’s soaring melodrama, Martin Eden, is a sinking portrait of an unravelling autodidact writer in Naples—tragic and beautiful all the same. Unquestionably arthouse, Marcello‘s cinematic language swells with a gritty and melancholic look into the plight of the dreamer.

Adapted from Jack London’s 1909 Künstlerroman of the same name, Marcello‘s Italian spin on the British socialist epic follows Martin Eden, (Luca Marinelli) an impoverished sailor who reinvents himself as a writer. Detracted by the class suffering around him, he teaches himself Italian and begins writing political critiques of society in essays and fiction.  The film also examines class struggle in Italy through Martin’s turbulent entanglement with a wealthy, educated Italian woman, Elena Orsini (Jessica Cressy).

In the same way that he seeks to break free from the suffocating constructs of aristocratic society, Martin is never successful in truly breaking free from Elena. This makes for a hostile, increasingly bitter yet altogether passionate relationship between the two, where Martin ricochets between his progressive leanings and her conservative conservative influence.

With ripples reminiscent of the flushed, self-aware musings of Italian novelist Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, Martin Eden explores similar grounds of classism, scholarship, and the struggle of the artist in malignant times.

Striking Cinematic Language

The visuals are immediately the most striking element—shot in grainy, 16mm film and soaked in a concentrated colour grading that resembles 60’s French New Wave cinema, the film transcends viewers immediately. Combined with a conglomeration of archival footage and Italian swing music, Martin Eden is an aesthetic marvel to watch. Marcello captures memories in a way that’s indescribable to the writer, there’s a sense of almost diseased nostalgia through the film.

One such scene illustrates Martin in a stupor with an affected gait, incoherent and ill-humoured as he follows the ghost of his past self down the street. His realization of his downward spiral, as he blankly watches himself  jaunt away happily may be one of the most powerful cinematic shots I’ve seen in quite sometime.

Muddled Political Plot

A strong literary screenplay co-written by Maurizio Braucci and Marcello himself illustrate the miasma of obsession that tightens its grip on the young writer. Martin spirals into these languorous, almost violent diatribes that speak volumes of the internal turmoil: “The writer Martin Eden doesn’t exist. He’s only a myth.”

However, at just over two hours long, Marcello‘s film loses viewers with its incongruous political motivations, as the sinking plot descents into a fog of malaise alongside Martin himself. Ultimately Martin Eden is beautiful piece of filmmaking to look at and a haunting snapshot into the lasting wears of political strife on the individual thinker, but it falters when it bites off more than it can chew. However, it might just be one of my personal favourites from this year’s TIFF.

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Watch Martin Eden