Il Mare on AllMovie

Giuseppe Patroni Griffi's haunting meditation on loneliness is as cold as its wintry Capri setting, and a powerful experience. Umberto Orsini is an actor who visits the island and meets a brooding alcoholic teen (Dino Mele) and a woman (Françoise Prévost) trying to sell her house. All three are insecure and try to reach out to each other, but don't really know how to give or receive emotionally. Griffi's choice to not give his characters names suggests a desire to speak to universal themes of isolation and rejection. The film is more ambition than achievement, but is strikingly photographed by Ennio Guarnieri and evokes its landscape -- both physical and emotional -- quite well.