vermiglio review
film by Maura Delpero (2024)
1944: life dramatically transforms for school teacher Cesare, his wife, and their nine children who live in Vermiglio, a remote mountain village in the Italian Alps. After harboring Pietro, a deserter of the Second World War and now a part of their family, Pietro’s presence rouses unwanted transparency on an emotionally estranged father’s calcified prejudices toward his family.
Review by: Aaron Jones | Filed Under: Film Reviews
May 28, 2025
Offering a delicate viewpoint of exemplarity and the daily tribulations of rural isolation under religious patriarchy, the film challenges insular and provincial footholds and supremacy. Cesare, galvanized through the course of his own intellect, betrays his totemic position through favoritism and by forestalling those he deems inferior—including his own family. Instilled in his own impunitive fantasy, where his actions bear no foreseeable recourse, is one of the carefully orchestrated dynamics that exerts its smouldering characters, each in their own subliminal conflict or turmoil.
Scattered with the emotional complexities of a family whose weakening security and threadbare seams are no longer willing to yield without question, it carefully illustrates the foundations of religious forbearance and family loyalty—which may prove unsustainable under the temptation of primal youthful desires and intellectual calling outside their insulated and fledgling positions.
A sweeping statement of imagined and imposed hierarchies and where they can lead, the film indicates a troublesome future where those who lack sentiment can only be fulfilled by reaffirmation. Positions of supremacy may be left to mold only those with impressionable minds, unable to discern the hypocrisy of a cruel heart that will eventually leave most as wilting flowers of neglect.
Accompanied by cinematography of breathtaking tranquility showing us the beauty of the Italian Alps and its harsh and rewarding presence, Delpero easily balances both the drama and beauty of the natural surroundings by exploring both simultaneously rather than feeling inserted. Due to such a large family, some fall to the wayside, providing more subtext than anything. Though given the film is less than two hours, it is a wise choice: where the family is the core of the film, it does not dilute the crucial character development by trying to over-explore those characters that do not play such critical roles as the ones the film centers around—while still familiarizing us with their unique personalities.
Perpetually developing and exploring new narratives with a brimming tension and glacial forbearance, filmmaker Maura Delpero explores the paradoxes of the human condition through emotion, intellect, dysfunction, our primal urges, and authority with a remarkable ease and alluring methods that elevate these age-old human dramas, secrets, and deceptions—and the effects of war on the human spirit—into something quite exquisite.
Author
Reviewed by Aaron Jones. Based in California, he developed a passion for film from a young age and has since viewed over 10,000 films. His appreciation for the medium led him to film criticism, where he now writes for CinemaWaves, offering analysis of both contemporary releases and timeless classics. In addition to his work here, he has contributed to other publications as well. Feel free to follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.
Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day…
With the strange disappearance of Laura, two colleagues, her older boyfriend, Rafael, and Ezequiel, learn of their recent discoveries, which may help…
With the strange disappearance of Laura, two colleagues, her older boyfriend, Rafael, and Ezequiel, learn of their recent discoveries, which may help…
The development of slow, or contemplative cinema is rooted in the history of film itself. Understanding slow cinema involves examining its evolution from early influences to its…
Cinematography is the art and craft of capturing visual images for film or digital media. It involves the use of cameras, lighting, composition, and movement to tell…
Arthouse film refers to a category of cinema known for its artistic and experimental nature, usually produced outside the major film studio system. These films prioritize artistic…