Sacro GRA (pronounced [ˈsaːkro dʒiˌɛrreˈa], Italian for "Holy GRA") is a 2013 Italian documentary film directed by Gianfranco Rosi. It won the Golden Lion at the 70th Venice International Film Festival.[1] It was the first documentary film to win the top Prize at the Venice film Festival.[2][3]
Sacro GRA | |
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![]() Film poster | |
Directed by | Gianfranco Rosi |
Written by | Gianfranco Rosi |
Cinematography | Gianfranco Rosi |
Edited by | Jacopo Quadri |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | Italy |
Language | Italian |
Synopsis
editThe film depicts life along the Grande Raccordo Anulare, the ring-road highway that surrounds Rome.[4] Rosi spent over two years in filming, while the film editing requested eight months of work.[5] According to the director, the film was inspired by Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities (1972), in which the explorer Marco Polo is imagined describing to Kublai Khan, the towns he visited throughout the Chinese Empire .[4][5]
Reception
editOn the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 77% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Sacro GRA makes the most of its unusual focus, proving that a documentary about the history of a road can also be powerfully human."[6] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[7]
Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave it 3.5/4 stars, noting that it seems "scattered and incomplete at times" but also that the "movie lingers in the imagination." He praised the "beauty" of the cinematography and commented that much interpretation is left to the viewer.[8]
In contrast, Jay Weissberg of Variety argued that "the idea remains more absorbing than the final product" and suggested that it was ideal fodder for documentary film festivals.[9]
References
edit- ^ "Vince l'Italia: Leone d'oro a "Sacro GRA"". La Repubblica. 7 September 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
- ^ Franck Nouchi (8 September 2013). "Pour la première fois, le Lion d'or à Venise récompense un documentaire". Le Monde. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
- ^ "Italian documentary Sacro GRA wins Golden Lion". BBC News. 8 September 2013.
- ^ a b Deborah Young (5 September 2013). "Sacro GRA, Tales from Rome's Ring Road (Sacro GRA): Venice Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
- ^ a b Jay Weissberg (5 September 2013). "Venice Film Review: 'Sacro GRA'". Variety. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
- ^ "Sacro GRA". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
- ^ "Sacro GRA". Metacritic. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
- ^ "Sacro GRA movie review & film summary (2013) | Roger Ebert".
- ^ "Film Review: 'Sacro GRA'". 6 September 2013.
External links
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