PALAZZO DI COZZO – ★★★

Documentary about Franco Cozzo, the Melbourne king of gaudy handmade Italian furniture. Growing up in Melbourne his ads were pretty famous, but I never desired owning a piece, nor did anyone I know. I suspect that in a sense, he was a meme before Internet memes were a thing. It was easy to watch, but I felt like there were some opportunities lost. It felt like there might have a been a story that could have been a universal interest story for an International audience, but ultimately it didn’t really deliver on that. All we really got was that he was famous for the ads, and that to some extent time had moved on and the demand for his style of furniture has dissipated. I’d have liked the documentary to dive a little deeper, but instead it kind of felt like an advertisement for the man and his furniture store.

THE MACALUSO SISTERS – ★★☆

An Italian film about five sisters. I was a little bit tired watching this, so maybe I missed some key points, but it felt like huge chunks of story were missing. I’m not clear where their parents were, but due to a tragic event at the beach while they were young, we see the how the event had a destructive result on the family over three eras of time. Didn’t really grab me.