Disney Branded Television goes arthouse with Le Pupille, an Italian live-action short film. The film has already made the festival circuit, beginning at Cannes and continuing on to Telluride, Toronto Film Festival, Philadelphia International Film Festival, and AFI Fest prior to today’s global Disney+ launch (It will also be featured as part of MoMA’s The Contenders film series later this month). From award-winning writer/director Alice Rohrwacher (Lazzaro felice, aka Happy as Lazarro), it presents a nostalgic Christmastime story about the meaning of the holiday.
(Disney)
Le Pupille (English translation: The Pupil) follows a group of orphan girls at a strict Italian boarding school in the midcentury. A country at war, locals seek out the prayers of the orphans believing their purity is sure to get their prayers answered. In a season of giving, much is asked of these children, who want nothing more than to be mischievous and playful.
“A film clumsily and freely based on a letter the writer Elsa Morante sent to her friend Goffredo Fofi,” reads the introduction to the film. Academy Award-winning producer Alfonso Cuarón (Y tu mamá también, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Gravity) was approached by Disney to curate a series of short films about Christmas, and he immediately thought of Alice Rohrwacher, who he considers to be “One of the most important filmmakers right now.” Le Pupille offers a taste of what’s to come from this collaboration between Disney and Cuarón’s UK-based production company Esperanto Filmoj (Italian company Tempesta also co-produces this film).
Le Pupille was shot in Super 16 (in 35mm format) and plays like a classic from the past. The aspect ratio uses rounded corners to add to the effect, with editing approaches feeling appropriate to this era, including a sped-up sequence reminiscent of silent films. In the U.S., Disney+ defaults to an English dubbed version of the film, although settings can be adjusted to display the film in its original Italian language with English subtitles. The dub replaces all dialogue, but songs are kept in Italian with subtitles translating the lyrics.
(Disney)
The film has a lot of fun with its themes, with the girls breaking the fourth wall through song at the end of the film and asking the audience to determine the moral of the story for themselves. And in case the film’s double meaning wasn’t obvious, the end credits incorporate close-ups of the orphans' eyes, which freely move around the screen in contrast to the strict life they live (pupils as in students vs pupils as in the center of the iris).
With a TV-PG rating, Le Pupille’s 37-minute runtime and slow pace may be a hard sell for young viewers, but this heartwarming family-friendly story is sure to please adult Disney+ subscribers looking for elevated holiday fare. It’s a beautiful film, one that has already captivated festival-goers around the world and now comes home for Christmas on Disney+.