Leopardi

Leopardi (Il giovane favoloso, 2014) — watch online on iFILM. Mario Martone's Italian biographical drama follows the short, punishing life of poet Giacomo Leopardi, with Elio Germano in the lead role — a performance that took home the Silver Bear for Best Actor at Berlin.

Born in 1798 in the provincial town of Recanati, Leopardi spent his early years locked inside his father's vast library, teaching himself ancient languages and filling notebooks with verse. The self-imposed confinement wrecked his health. When he finally left home, the wider world offered little comfort: Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples — each city a fresh disappointment and a fresh set of lines. Martone keeps the film honest about what that kind of solitude costs. There is no redemptive arc dressed up in soft lighting.

The film runs 137 minutes and moves through nearly four decades of a life that ended at thirty-eight. If you've encountered Leopardi's poetry before — especially L'Infinito — there's an added layer here, watching the circumstances that produced those spare, devastating lines. Stream Leopardi (2014) online on iFILM.