In his new film “L’apprendistato” , which premiered at the 72nd Locarno Festival in the Cineasti del presente competition, Italian filmmakerexplores a crucial moment in a young life as a teenage boy is forced to grow up after enrolling at a prestigious hotel and catering school.
The result is a well-composed mix of meticulously curated visuals and a rhythmic score, evoking the anxiously anticipated rite of passage that connects to the author’s general focus on coming-of-age, “L’apprendistato” being the second instalment of a future adolescence trilogy that began with his 2014 movie “Frastuono.”“L’apprendistato” unapologetically borders documentary and fiction, something of a defining path for the young director.
Finding the balance between observation and control that would work for the film was imperative. For “L’apprendistato,” a lot of the control was invested in the initial phase, just before principal photography, opening the actual shoot up to an intimate study of these real people who process their emotions in real-time. “I controlled it before, to get the possibility of getting the real thing after.