I have just finished watching the movies, so my impressions are a bit jumbled together. I thought I was safe until the end credits started... that’s when I cried. Luca is probably one of the most delicate and beautiful animated children movie of the past 5 years. There are a lot of posts about how this movie can be read as an allegory for LGBTQ+ children/people finding acceptance, so I won’t dwell on it. What I want to talk about is how beautiful this movie is, how a 1.35 h movie perfectly portrayed Liguria, and all the amazing details the director included.
First off, the songs. The soundtracks included are all from the 60s-70s, and here in Italy they are well known. It’s that type of old songs you sometimes listen to, just because; you sing along with your parents while you drive toward the sea, or with friends when you are drunk on ferragosto and want to bring everyone together. It’s that type of nostalgic songs everyone knows: you put them on and you instantly know the lyrics, even if, without the melody, you wouldn’t recall a word.
The location. That’s EXACTLY how a Ligurian 60s-70s costal city looks like. This is Luca’s fictional town, “Porto Rosso” (“red harbor”, a very believable name by the way since there are tons of coastal cities named “porto something”):
And this here I put two pictures of Zoagli (a coastal town in Liguria) plus a third of a more an older built town:
Porto Rosso is nestled between two hills, like most Ligurian town are. And, that’s not all, like most of these small towns the city center is literally a square with a fountain, a Gelateria and a Church! The beach is rocky (and those rocks hurts, believe me!) and 2 meters from the where the weave breaks it goes 5 meters deep!
Those old men playing cards? Everyone in Italy play cards! Most of teenagers play cards after lunch, and “Scopa” is one of the most popular card games! And the “no ball” sign?? That sign is literally posted in most squares (at least small ones), because Italian children are obsessed with soccer!! And they play everywhere!! The caps?? My granddad had a collection of caps, all of them the same!!
And the words?? Luca contains so many Italian words and expressions, from “Silenzio, Bruno!” (Silence, Bruno!) to “Santa Mozzarella” (Holy mozzarella) - which, by the way, are not a thing in Italy, just funny idioms invented for this movie. All of the expressions used are accurate! “Stupido”, “Cosa fai”, “piccolina”, “Girolamo Trombetta”, I was so impressed by the sheer amount of words the writer included in this movie!! It honesty felt like watching an original Italian animation, more than something by an American Studio. It really felt... yeah, like home.
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