La Gradiva (Marine Atlan, 2026)

[Soy Cuba]

'La Gradiva'

Anybody else mentioned this? Very good film about a group of French students that go on a college trip to Italy. It's almost docu-hybrid and has a distinct memoir / retrospect tone to it and the performances mostly by non actors are largely very real. One of my films of the year

[brundlefly]

La Gradiva (Marine Atlan, France / Italy, 2026)
A third first film that effortlessly, confidently outdoes most seasoned directors. This one is already getting plenty of accolades, and they’re well-deserved. I suppose this is another teens-in-crisis film, but rather than flip out into something strange and wonderful, it simply follows a classical straight line to its conclusion. A class of French students visit Naples. There’s the usual extracurricular hijinks, the usual casual cruelties and tensions (the first section of the film could have been called Dicks on a Train), and the usual unlikely / reluctant bonding, but the writing and acting is so adept that characters continuously evolve and surprise or disappoint us with their behaviour, rather than with imposed ‘plot developments’.

Trailer.