E.N.D. (2013)
Directed by: Allegra Bernardoni, Federico Greco, Luca Alessandro
Written by: Allegra Bernardoni, Federico Greco, Luca Alessandro
Starring: Antonio Canella, Francesca Antonucci, Francesco Di Giacomo, Ilaria Baiocco
RUNNING TIME: 26 min
REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera, Official HCF Critic
There are so many people who experience death clearly.
Three of them are able to defeat it.
But they don’t know it yet.
A man, whose face we don’t see, changes and goes out, driving in his car somewhere. The newspaper headline in his house says: “Dead man wakes up during his own autopsy“. On the morning of maybe the next day, but maybe not, three young people, two men and a woman, awake in a big house after a heavy night. One of the men goes out for something to eat and goes into a strange funeral parlour where a man who has lost his son has a strange request….
I’m going to admit, even with the tagline above that shows up after the opening scene, I didn’t understand at least half of what was going on in E.N.D., though that may have been intentional. I have a feeling if I watch it again, things may become clear, or at least clearer, but reviews should really be based on first impressions. It not only jumps around in time but seems, at least in some parts, to leave out crucial information. There’s even a bit where the same tracking shot, showing lots of cigarettes on the floor, appears to be used twice, only the second time it reveals the three young people not waking up on the floor, but in coffins. I’m sure this wasn’t at all because they just wanted to save money!
Now all this sounds like I’m saying that E.N.D. is rubbish, and it certainly isn’t. It looks great, with wonderfully bright cinematography by Federico Greco, who also co-directed and co-wrote E.N.D. and seems to be the main force behind this project. It sounds fine with a guitar-heavy score by Paolo Baglio, Gabriele Caputo, and Antonio Genovino that helps give it that Italian touch. It also has some interesting characters, most of whom are clearly hiding something from the audience, but with whom I’d be happy spending more time with. It seems that I may get the chance, as it’s actually the pilot for a TV series, even if it looks very cinematic with graceful camera movement and sharp editing. Therefore it’s clearly setting things up for later development, and if you take this into consideration then the confusing parts may not seem to be as much of a problem. And one has to admire the gall of something that seems to be comprised of so many disparate elements that are increasingly seen to be connected to a funeral parlour, and then suddenly towards becomes an apocalyptic story of a deadly plague that may be caused “from a stash of badly mixed cocaine”.
Despite having some flaws in my opinion, flaws which may very well be bonuses to some viewers, I certainly want to see how this story pans out….
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