Starring: Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressey, Denise Sardisco, Autilla Ranieri, Elisabetta Valgo, Carlo Cecchi
Distributor: Palace Films
Runtime: 129 mins. Reviewed in Jun 2021
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Novelist Jack London is best known for his stories, Call of the Wild and White Fang. He wrote a number of short stories about the Klondike and the gold rush where he spent a great deal of time, as well as stories of the Pacific. He was also concerned about social and socialist issues and individualism. This is reflected in his novel, Martin Eden, which has some autobiographical links. The original novel was set in Oakland in the early 20th century.
This version is an Italian interpretation, keeping close to many aspects of the original novel. It is now set in Naples and retains the names of several of the characters, Martin Eden himself and his eccentric friend and sometimes-mentor, Russ Brissenden. However, the names of the women and families have been changed.
On the one hand, the scenario plays as if it was a realistic dramatisation of Martin Eden’s life and career. On the other hand, there are continued suggestions, evocations, that while this is a 20th-century story, it is a 20th-century somewhat parallel to the reality. Throughout, there are implications of different decades, mixed together, costumes and decor, cars and transport, technology from recorders to typewriters. Which means then that, while we are watching an Italian unfolding, the story is universal and transcends the decades.
This is reinforced by the inclusion of a great deal of film footage from the past, again illustrating different decades, ships and seafaring, crowd sequences and political movements…
Luca Marinelli won the Best Acting award in Venice, 2020, for his portrayal of Martin Eden. Eden is not a particularly sympathetic character, which means that the audience is observing him, often judging him, rather than empathising with him and his struggles. We see his poor background, his devotion to his mother, his relationship with his sister and her husband whom he dislikes but who challenges him to work. He is a sailor and endures harsh experiences at sea.
The film dramatises a turning point in his life when, after visiting a bar, he helps the wealthy young man who is set on by thugs – and the young man gratefully introduces him to his family, the Orsinis. The upper-middle-class, conservative family initially welcomes him, and he is smitten by the daughter of the family, Elena (Cressey). She challenges him, particularly his lack of education. We see him start to educate himself – going to exams and failing, learning to read, learning to speak grammatically, buying a typewriter, beginning to write stories, sending them off and being rejected.
However, his education and continued reading means that he gives a great deal of thought to social conditions. Encouraged by the eccentric Russ Brissenden, he becomes involved in political meetings, making speeches about the importance of the individual, critiquing socialism (all really being enslaved by the socialist bosses), heckled and rejected. He is also rejected by Elena and her family who disagree with him.
The climax is Martin Eden’s confrontation with himself and what he has made of life – which has an echo in the life of Jack London who died aged 40..
This is something of an esoteric interpretation of London’s novel.
Peter Malone MSC
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