Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #129. Saverio Costanzo’s Finalemente L’Alba

Finalemente L’alba

After directing a whopping 70 episodes of “In Treatment” and just over a dozen episodes of “My Brilliant Friend,” 2014’s Hungry Hearts (five-time winner at the Venice Film Festival) filmmaker Saverio Costanzo finally makes a return to film with Finalemente l’alba. Production began in September at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios with a cast comprised of Rebecca Antonaci, Lily James, Joe Keery, Willem Dafoe and Rachel Sennott. Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me By Your Name) worked on 35mm for the project. Wildside’s Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa (Le otto montagne) produced the project. Set in the golden age of Rome’s historic Cinecittà in the 1950s, the feature follows teenage ingenue Mimosa (Antonaci) over the course of one night after she is hired as an extra. Lily plays neurotic Hollywood starlet Josephine, who is at a crossroads in her career; Keery, a rising young actor picking up bit parts; Dafoe, an American art gallerist, who is an old friend of Josephine, and Sennott, an Egyptian queen.

Gist: A young Roman woman during the 1950s is on the verge of becoming engaged to a man. She goes to Cinecittà to do an audition as an extra and is thrust into this almost infinite night during which she discovers herself.

Release Date/Prediction: This should be selected as a competition film at the Venice Film Festival.