The Art of Happiness by Alessandro Rak is an animated drama about the “hidden wealth of everyday things”. It is a soulful film that reminds us to find beauty in the present and that the “present” is actually eternal.
It sounds a bit artsy-fartsy, but this film is actually full of positive ideas that apply to every aspects of life. It explores the cyclical nature of time, our tenuous relationships with family members, the terror of a world ruled by greed and even what comes after death.
It is obvious that Rak poured a lot of soul into the script and screenplay, trying to get across deep, confusing feelings in a way that the viewer can understand and empathise with.
The Art of Happiness follows cab driver and ex-musician, Sergio (Leandro Amato), as he shuttles a number of interesting characters through a trash-filled city. He chats with the passengers, listening to their stories, and coming closer and closer to the ultimate realisation that underpins the film: that happiness is achievable; you just need to choose to take it.
Other important themes of the film include reincarnation and repetition. The film suggests that time is cyclical; that what you do once you do forever. The idea is expressed through the repetitive format of the film itself, each scene being basically the same thing but with subtle, yet important differences leading towards ultimate salvation (or annihilation as the eccentric radio host character would think). While this is important to the film’s theme, it does get a bit boring after a while. A number of different animation styles do not hide the fact that this movie is simply a series of repeated scenes, half of which could be cut significantly without changing much at all.
Speaking of repetition, the soundtrack really does sounds like a broken record. While it is a beautiful soundtrack full of feel-good Pixar-like tunes and some haunting choral vocals, the main songs are ultimately used too much. There is only one moment of silence in the entire film, a reprieve from the endless jingle that fills the entire 80 or so minutes.
The animation style used is pretty, for the most part. It is reminiscent of movies such as A Scanner Darkly, or Waking Life (in fact, it is actually quite a similar movie to the latter in many respects, just with less depth). The rotoscoped animation (that is, animation based on real footage) can be beautiful in parts, but fairly dodgy in others. And while the experimentation with multiple styles of animations is neat, they should have avoided using 3D graphics. The result just looks like a cut scene from an early 2000 video game. I must say though, this film does make excellent use of angles and colours. It looks “golden”, syrupy and sweet.
L’arte Della Felicità, as it is called in Italian, is packed with a whole lot of heart. It’s just a shame that its uplifting message is lost among the visuals and incessant audio.
Reviewed by James Rudd
Rating out of 10: 6
The Lavazza Italian Film Festival runs from 2 – 22 October 2014 exclusively at the Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas.
More News
