Martin Eden

Directed by Pietro Marcello

Release Year: 2019

Running time: 129

Country: Italy

Language: Italian with English Subtitles

Genres: Drama, Period Drama, Based on Literature

Subjects:

Synopsis

Directed by: Pietro Marcello

Cast: Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy, Carlo Cecchi, Vincenzo Nemolato, Marco Leonardi, Denise Sardisco

Adapted from a 1909 novel by Jack London yet set in a provocatively unspecified moment in Italy’s history, Martin Eden is a passionate and enthralling narrative fresco in the tradition of the great Italian classics. Martin (played by the marvelously committed Luca Marinelli) is a self-taught proletarian with artistic aspirations who hopes that his dreams of becoming a writer will help him rise above his station and marry a wealthy young university student (Jessica Cressy). The dissatisfactions of working-class toil and bourgeois success lead to political awakening and destructive anxiety in this enveloping, superbly mounted bildungsroman.

Reviews & Awards

Reviews

"Critic’s Pick! Audacious and thrilling. An ingenious adaptation of the Jack London novel. pure cinema."

- Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“A movie that arrives like a bolt out of the blue, bursting with ideas, not unlike its hero.”

- J. Hoberman, The New York Review of Books

"Vibrant and passionate. A dazzling showcase for Luca Marinelli. It’s as if the whole 20th century had been distilled, or scrambled, into an eternal, mercurial now."

- Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

“A collage of shifting surfaces… lusty with political intent.”

- Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

“Old-school cinematic soul food – a sweepingly stylish and smart Italian coming-of-age drama that feels as if it could have been made 60 years ago, during the heyday of Visconti.”

- Ty Burr, Boston Globe

"A masterpiece... see it any way you can."

- Bilge Ebiri, Vulture

“Everything I love in movies. An absolute blast."

- A.O. Scott, The New York Times.

“One of the most epic-feeling Italian movies in years, a throwback to ’70s-era big-canvas statements. Lead actor Luca Marinelli, rousing in every scene, comes within hailing distance of the young Robert De Niro.”

- Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

“A kaleidoscopic historical fantasia that seems possessed by the ghosts of Italian cinema.”

- Imogen Sara Smith, Film Comment

“A spectacular performance. Marinelli is a force of nature in every scene and doesn’t play Eden so much as inhabit him.”

- Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter

“This could be the international break-out of the season."

- Jordan Raup, The Film Stage

“Momentous. Distinctly big, dramatic, and affecting, Martin Eden confirms Marcello’s burgeoning talents without sacrificing the beauty, rigor, and intelligence that has built Marcello’s reputation as one of European cinema’s foremost fusionists. Marcello’s decade-long evolution from idiosyncratic film essayist to grand narrative storyteller represents one of the most significant artistic flowerings in contemporary cinema.”

- Jordan Cronk, Cinemascope

“A wonderful mix of 19th-century Romanticism and 20th-century neorealism."

- Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist