Andron the black labyrinth: screening in Ferrara

As soon as we heard about a screening of Andron at the Ferrara Film Festival, we immediately decided to attend. We’de been waiting for two years, and we had no intention of losing this chance of seeing the movie.

I was so busy organizing the trip that I’d missed the announcement about Francesco Cinquemani’s presence at the screening.

Unfortunately we were too busy at work so we weren’t able to get on our way until 7,30 p.m. and the screening was scheduled to begin at 9,30 p.m.

We weren’t worried, though, since the sat nav stated that our trip would take us one hour and 15 minutes.

Obviously it didn’t.

There had been an accident on the road.. and even taking an alternative route didn’t help. We lost at least 10 minutes in front of a rail crossing.. There wasn’t much time to spare so I’d got a little anxious.

We even had to park at quite a distance from the venue beause of technical difficulties due to the layout of this beautiful city. It was 9,10 p.m. already when we started walking towards the cinema.

Thankfully a guy guided us so we were able to reach the ticket stall at 9,27 p.m. We had booked tickets in advance, but the room wasn’t full anyway.. I think they announced this screening too late so many missed it, and I was very sad about that, especially for Francesco Cinquemani.

We sat down and immediately the director entered the room. As I said, I didn’t know he’d be there so it was a nice surprise for me! My mind immediately started running: I wanted to ask him a few questions after the screening.

Right before the lights went down, Cinquemani spoke about the film. He told us that Andron it’s not yet finished.. some of the special effects are still missing so we were about to watch a version of the movie that wasn’t the final one. He also said we would see the movie dubbed in Italian, and the mere thought made me shudder... Then he told us that only one character would survive and that, even if usually the one to survive is the “cool” character, the most confident one - the better one in other words - that wasn’t going to happen in Andron.

Joking he also asked if we’d taken with us eggs or tomatoes to throw at him at the end of the screening.

Before Andron, they also showed a 15 minutes long movie titled "Hunter."

Let’s now talk about Andron.. with Mary’s review (she’s a great reviewer): BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

 

MARY’S REVIEW:

It’s a futuristic setting, in an unspecified world: we only know we’re in the future.

It’s 2156 and the characters are held inside a structure that belongs to an 'artificial intelligence' called Andron, an extremely strong Network that supervises the entire world, basically doing with it what it pleases: humans are enslaved, and once a year these DEADLY GAMES are organized and the players can hope to win a better life for themselves.

It seems at first like these games are 'powered' by Adam, an apparently cruel man who is some sort of puppet master, but even he has to answer to someone above, a misterious Chancellor who stays hidden inside this fog of mistery for the whole movie (Danny Glover).

Along with the two of them, in the 'room' belonging to Andron from which the game is powered, there’s also a 'Commander,' a silent and confused young woman, and "Adòra", a 'secretary' of sort in the game whose job is to obey Adam’s orders.

Now about our characters.

They don’t know each other. They find themselves in each other’s company at different, random, times, and they share only two things: they have no idea how they arrived in that place and have no memory of their previous lives.

They don’t even know their own names.

There’s also another thing they all have in common: a misterious tattoo on the base of their necks. Every tattoo is different and the designs seem to match some of the mechanisms carved in the wall. They can move inside Andron using the doors with the design that coincides with their tattoos.

Other people can’t open the door assigned to match someone else’s tattoo.

Doors can be used to move throughout the network and find weapons, and that’s what happens to Julian, Gale’s character, when he pushes his right arm inside a mechanism and suddenly he is given some sort of robotic arm to make him stronger.

The game is deadly, obviously. Characters can kill each other, or try to overcome the obstacles that Adam places in their way with the intent of putting them in danger and forcing them to make extreme decisions.

The slaves in Andron can bet on the players. But in doing so they tie their own lives with the one of the player they choose. If the player dies, so does the slave… But if the player wins, the slave will be freed.

This is how Andron makes money: with these bets. If nobody wins, the slaves, that are considered useless and are too many to be supported, will all be killed.

Both Adam and the Chancellor know this from the start.

But back to our players.

Unexpectedly, they receive help from Skin’s character, a former doctor of the network, who rebelled and decided to help the players in this game to win and get out alive.

Things go downhill when a girl (played by Michelle Ryan) suddenly remembers that the death of her sister (whose ghost still roams the rooms on the game) was caused by rebels, and from there we go down a spiral of death that will leave alive only two players (a blond girl, very shy and unsure but surprisingly apt in the face of danger, and her partner). They are able to escape the obstacles posed by Andron but they only reach the 'second level' of the game.

There’s a last minute revelation and it’s about Gale Harold’s character (a man still with no identity).
In the beginning, in fact, Adam had explained the rules of the game and stated that the paying audience could get one of the characters back from the dead (not a real death then?)

The movie ends focusing on Gale’s face, while he wakes up again.

Well, well. Let’s try to give not a personal judgement but an objective one on the plot and on the developing of a movie that’s absolutely brave, but maybe wasn’t able to become all that the director thought it could be.

We all know about the HUNGER GAMES saga, it had an international success after all, but I need to say that I truly appreciated how they tried to do a different version of that same idea here. This one was a lot more sci-fi than the fantasy world created by Collins (creator of HG).

Let’s start with the good: the idea of having characters with no memory was a truly great one, as was the random introduction of memories as to drive them to action.

Very interesting was also the matching of tattoo/mechanism.

It was intriguing to think about these alternative worlds: by the end of the movie we still don’t know what was real inside the minds of the characters, and what was instead planted there by Andron.

The plot: too incoherent and uncoordinated. The characters were interesting but suffered from a lack of introspection that felt like a waste.

Pathos: lacking, but that was mostly due to a terrible dubbing. To be fair the acting wasn’t stellar either and the result was that we couldn’t really believe those were characters fighting for their lives.

Best performances in my opinion: Gale Harold, whose character is often more confused than tenacious, was able to mantain integrity and stay true to his character for the entire movie.

Michelle Ryan: wonderful in her spree of vengeful psychosis. A little less good in the beginning, because she seemed like a poor soul looking for some sort of personality.
Shoutout also to the couple Howard/Campbell Hughes. Great chemistry between them; the characters they play don’t know a thing about each other or their own selves but the actors were able to give coherence and personality to their characters nonetheless.

A FEW COMMENTS FROM MARCY:

As for me, what can I say? I was hoping for more. The plot is confusing. Baldwin’s role it’s not entirely clear, but I’d rather not comment further for those who didn’t see the movie yet. I could have done without the dubbing.. Gale doesn’t talk much anyway...

I loved the idea of the tattoos on the neck that gave the players the chance to open the doors in Andron.

The movie ends with the two players who were able to survive the first level of the game. I suppose the second movie will be about the second level, since Cinquemani spoke about this project as a trilogy.

At the end of the screening I looked around hoping to spot Cinquemani, but I didnt see him anywhere. And I didn’t even get to meet with some members of our staff. It was late and Mary had had a little mishap, so we made our way back home.

AND NOW LET’S HEAR FROM CLAUDIA:

Andron in Ferrara, my own city! Sometimes good things happen then! I booked tickets immediately and then I tried messaging the director on facebook! I told him I was one of the admins of  gale-harold.it and wished him luck for the screening. He answered immediately and told me that, if everything went accordingly, he would be at the screening himself and we could meet in person.

When, along with my cousin Sandra and my dear friend Mattia, we arrived at the cinema,  I spotted some sort of Red Carpet. I went to the stall to get my pre-booked tickets and asked if they knew if people connected to the movie would attend the screening; a girl pointed me to a little sofa, beyond the bar, where three people from the organization sat, the presenter of the evening included.

I went to them and asked again: they said they were waiting for Francesco Cinquemani; I pointed out that it was already 9.30 p.m., time when the screening was supposed to begin, and they told me that I could wait for him to arrive if I wanted to because Cinquemani was going to say a few words before the film started so I wasn’t going to miss anything.

I went to the bathroom and when I came out, the three organizers told me that the director was there. There was some sort of photoshoot happening, so we got closer. I called him by name and told him who I was and that we’d spoken the day before via facebook, and I asked if I could take a picture. He recognized me, said hello, and then agreed to the pictures.....

A blond girl, whom I didn’t know, was with him and she asked him who I was, he replied that I was connected to a website that followed one of the actors starring in the movie, Gale Harold, and that the website is of course called gale-harold.it, (he remembered that himself!), and than he added, that’s his "official website".....I laughed and said "We wish!!!! It’s not an official website." He came closer and said "you know he can’t, " to which I replied "yes, I know," and he continued, "but you also know that he appreciates you very much," and I said, "yes, I know, and we’re very happy about it," then we walked towards the entrance and he told me that the movie wasn’t finished so I wasn’t about to watch the final version, he was still working on the special effects for the screening in Los Angeles, and that’s something he also said in the speech he made before the movie. We wished him good luck, and he told us to enjoy the movie. He’s a truly wonderful man.

I have to say that our expectations about Andron were very high because Francesco Cinquemani had been very thourough in explaining his plan and his aim for the movie and that’s why I need to admit that I was disappointed. First of all I was disappointed not to be able to watch the original version, a few scenes I’d seen in the trailer, in English, sounded a lot better. It’s possible that the low end dubbing was due to the haste of having to show the movie to this festival.  I also think that the plans and the aim that we heard of got lost during the developing of a film that goes on too long and reveals too little, and that may be due to the fact that the project is supposed to be a trilogy but it’s still disappointing. I didn’t think much of the special effects, either, because I was expecting something explosive, but that’s something I’m sure will be resolved in the final version like Francesco said. All in all, I loved the idea of a movie that unfortunately showed itself only in bits and pieces, and, it goes without saying, I loved Gale ... to see him on a big screen (first time for me) was a real pleasure!

Copyright© foto by Klaudia62

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