The praise of ethyl wisdom that has triumphed in Italy

No one would say it when looking at one of its frames, but The Last Round in Venice is an adventure film. There is a journey, a romantic quest, and even buried treasure. But the action does not take place in exotic locations, but on secondary roads and not particularly bucolic towns in the plains surrounding Venice, and its protagonists are not intrepid explorers, but a couple of drunks who answer to the names of Carlobianchi and Doriano, and who have spent many years dodging the last hangover with the simple – but effective – method of always adding a drink after the theoretical final round.

The duo momentarily becomes a trio with the addition of Giulio, an architecture student whom Carlobianchi and Doriano try to shake off his shyness and make him enjoy the present without goals or worries. “Reality is much more beautiful,” concludes the young man upon visiting a funerary complex designed by Carlo Scarpa, whom until then he had only known through blueprints. The simple transparency with which The Last Round in Venice articulates this philosophy has made it the sensation of the season in Italy. But the most interesting thing about Francesco Sossai's film is the sweet melancholy that surrounds the protagonists, so used to living in overtime that they don't realize that time has slipped through their fingers. Perhaps it is precisely the praise of unproductivity into which they have turned their lives that has made them free.