Product Details

• Actors: Sergio Castellitto, Ling Tai, Angelo Costabile, Hiu Sun Ha, Catherine Sng
• Directors: Gianni Amelio
• Producers: The Missing Star ( L'Étoile imaginaire ) ( La Stella che non c'č ), The Missing Star, L'Étoile imaginaire, La Stella che non c'č
• Format: Import, PAL, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: 01 Distribution
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000V2PN9U
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,783 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Italy released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: Italian ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), French ( Subtitles ), Italian ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Cast/Crew Interview(s), Commentary, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Short Film, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: The film, adapted from La dismissione, a novel by Ermanno Rea, focuses on Vincenzo, a metallurgic worker who does not accept the fact that his factory has shut down and follows the machines up to Shanghai where they have been sold. ...The Missing Star ( L'Étoile imaginaire ) ( La Stella che non c'č )

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Please encourage licenser to make available in US version!, December 25, 2008

By 

N. C. Baltz "Giometta" (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Missing Star ( L'Étoile imaginaire ) ( La Stella che non c'č ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Italy ] (DVD)

This film won many awards in Europe and has been shown at film festivals here in the US. I saw it as part of the Italian students' IISA series at Berkeley.

I found this film to be extraordinary in its message. The subject is one that is happening in many countries, but not addressed in anything I have seen--that is the sale and disassembly of manufacturing businesses to China. The film opens with demonstrations by Italian workers over yet another plant closing, this time a steel mill. Workers are angry and shouting, protesting their shared descent into unemployment.

Actor Sergio Castellito (who I first saw in "Mostly Martha"--if you haven't seen that, it's also good), plays Vincenzo Buonavolanta, a maintenance worker who becomes deeply committed to taking a reworked part to the plant's new owners. To do that, he travels into the New China, and we see it in the background as the story unfolds, as an awe-inspiring look at the heights and the depths of China's burgeoning new prosperity.

The film is wonderfully acted, the score is beautiful, and the scenes unforgettable. Sergio Castellitto plays his character with an heroic quality, and, to add to the story, of course, there is a romance between Vincenzo and a lovely Chinese translator who comes to his aid.

I learned so much from this movie about what I don't know. I didn't know that exportation of obsolete manufacturing is an ongoing phenomenon in the world, and that, as a process, it's probably not so bad. But it's the scale that the mercenary effects of corporate expansion and greed have on world cultures, and how that affects all of us, whether we know it, or are blissfully unaware.

I dare for this film to be shown in this country. It's an incendiary topic and my first thought was that this would never be shown here because it appears to question the relentless expansion of capitalism. But I think its comment is larger than that. What are we all after in this world, anyway? Do we want a decent life? And what does that mean? Clean water, clean places to live, a job?

Director Gianni Amelio has made other films, but this one is a star like none other.