(12A), 84mins
TRUFFLES are described as being a little nutty, deep, sweet and very rare.
Which is exactly how I’d describe this documentary about the secret community of truffle hunters who jealously guard their knowledge of where the fungi is found.
The hunters are old Italian men who have spent their long lives clambering the mountains and forests to find the delicious and highly expensive food.
Their existence is otherworldly and off the grid — they use broken typewriters, eat from the fields and appear to have not a single mobile phone between them.
The four men focused on are aged between 60 and 85, and live in small rural villages in the Piedmont area of Italy.
Their entire existence is searching for truffles. During this quiet, idyllic documentary, directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, we also see their other obs-ession — the dogs that help them.
Their relationship with their working dogs is a thing of beauty. They get their canine helpers blessed in church by an enthusiastic priest, light candles on a cake for their birthday, bathe with them and sing to them.
It may seem eccentric but it’s also understandable. These dogs are their constant companions — and they trust them with their livelihoods.
One 88-year-old, Carlo, insists on going out at night while his wife, who is both concerned and furious, shouts through the village trying to find him and bring him back.
There are many touches of humour, like in one scene at a truffle auction where buyers queue for ages to walk by the strange-looking fungi and bend to smell it, making it appear like a religious ritual. The directors spent three years getting to know their subjects and getting involved in their private world, and you can tell the truffle hunters are comfortable in front of the camera.
But they insist on taking their truffle-seeking skills to the grave. During a dinner with a friend, a childless, wifeless 84-year-old is asked to pass on his secrets of where he hunts and how.
He refuses. “If you had a child, you’d tell them,” the friend states.
“No, I would not!” the man exclaims. And he means it.
The Truffle Hunters is slow but idyllic, with each shot looking like it could be framed and put on the wall of a photography exhibition.
It really is a gem.
(PG), 115mins
LIKE a real-life incarnation of Ed Sheeran’s Galway Girl, she played the fiddle in an Irish band. . . except this time she fell in love with an American man.
Borrowing heavily from the plot of Notting Hill and set in the Emerald Isle, this “first love” tale is twee, predictable and surprisingly sweet.
Rose Reid plays Finley, a young American violinist who flies to Ireland to study for a semester abroad.
On the plane from New York she sits next to movie star Beckett (Jedidiah Goodacre) who it later transpires is also staying at the same bed and breakfast run by Finley’s host family.
Romance bubbles away, until A-lister Beckett has to choose between dating someone “normal” and his career-boosting fake relationship with co-star Taylor (Katherine McNamara).
There are glorious shots of pastoral Ireland, obligatory fiddle-de-dee “craic” in the pub, lovable drunk rogues aplenty, and Vanessa Redgrave as a grumpy old lady.
Saoirse-Monica Jackson (Erin from Derry Girls) provides most of the laughs as starstruck Beckett fan Emma. It’s far too long, and so clichéd it’s a surprise there are no leprechauns, but decent acting and sharp humour mean it slips down as smoothly as a Guinness.
On Sky Cinema from tomorrow.
(15), 129mins
MARTIN Eden feels like a classic Italian film from the Seventies, unearthed after decades of gathering dust in all its Technicolor glory to help get bums on cinema seats post-lockdown.
But I can confirm this is a new adaptation of the 1909 novel by American author Jack London about a young, uneducated sailor with big dreams of becoming a well-respected writer.
It is set in Naples against murmurings of socialist revolution, which could be from any patch of Italian history over the past century.
There’s Gatsby-era fashion, Seventies cars and a soundtrack pulsing with Euro pop. This is a deliberate move by director Pietro Marcello to prove his story about love, determination and class struggles is timeless and for any era.
Martin (Luca Marinelli, from Netflix’s The Old Guard) wakes up after a bender to see a defenceless young man being bullied and, one punch later, saves the lad.
His name is Arturo (Giustiniano Alpi) and he takes our hero to meet his family, the Orsinis. Here, Martin meets the beautiful Elena (Jessica Cressy) and all his hopes, troubles and opportunities burst into life.
“This has been the best day of my life,” Martin says to Elena. You believe him. It’s Martin against the world and his struggles and tiny triumphs are glorious to see.
