The Girl by the Lake (La Ragazza del Lago): Review of Film Version of Karin Fossum's Don't Look Back

Lucia (Marzia Postagna) allows sleepovers when her niece's mother works nights. Paola (Maria Sole Mansutti) becomes worried when Marta (Nicole Perrone) no-shows the next day. Inspector Lorenzo Siboldi (Fausto Maria Sciarappa) calls Commissioner Giovanni Sanzio (Toni Servillo). He discovers Marta delayed by Mario (Franco Ravera), a mentally challenged local bemoaning an ailing rabbit named Hercules and a dead nude by the serpent's lake, Laghi di Fusine, near Tarvisio, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Mario expects that Anna Nadal (Alessia Piovan) will catch cold. Giovanni finds Anna under Mario's blue jacket. He goes to interview:

• Boyfriend and truant factory worker Roberto Biasutti (Denis Fasolo);
• Half-sister -- by a different father -- Silvia Nadal (Heidi Caldart);
• Widowed father Davide Nadal (Marco Baliani).

Giovanni hears out the people last known to see Anna alive, near a café before her hillside morning jobs:

• her hockey coach (Enrico Cavallero) until 8 months ago; and
• her previous employer, Corrado Canali (Fabrizio Gifuni).

He nevertheless insists upon arresting Roberto for caching Anna's backpack behind backyard trees and erasing CD-roms in his bedroom. He judges her fast-acting brain tumor as inspiring Roberto's drowning a non-struggling Anna in seven or eight minutes. And yet other situations look equally suspicious:

• Chiara Canali's (Valeria Golino) envying her son's preferring Anna's babysitting;
• Davide's photographing Anna sunbathing;
• Mario's wheelchair-bound father (Omero Antonutti) resenting Anna's long, slender legs.

Silvia mentions Anna's removing a bronze angel from three-year-old Angelo Canali's tombstone.

Police ultimately need to release Roberto. Corrado opts to confess to killing Anna. He prefers not to discuss Anna's blaming and threatening him for Angelo choking during breakfast.

Giovanni eagerly quits small town mysteries for big city drama. He relishes time with daughter Francesca (Giulia Michelini), a truant high school student whose D in history looks worse than F in Latin. He savors moments with his institutionalized wife (Anna Bonaiuto), who considers him her University-teaching brother from abroad and co-inmate Carlo (Giuliano Zannier) true love.

It takes little effort to follow Italian dialogues. Ninety-six minutes unite first-rate performers with:

• Cinematographer Ramiro Civita;
• Director Andrea Molaioli;
• Editor Giogiò Franchini;
• Musician Teho Teardo;
• Producer Nicola Giuliano;
• Screenwriter Sandro Petraglia.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

La Ragazza del Lago (The Girl by the Lake) is an award-winning Italian film based on an award-winning novel by Karin Mathisen Fossum (born November 6. 1954), Norway's best-selling author of crime dramas.
Bloody Scotland, International Crime Writing Festival, Stirling, central Scotland; Saturday, September 15, 2012: TimDuncan, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KarinFossum2012.png

La Ragazzo del Lago unfolds amid the stunning scenery of Laghi di Fusine (Fusine Lakes), which comprises two lakes, Lago Superiore ed il Lago Inferiore, considered as exemplary alpine lakes.
northeastern Friuli–Venezia Giulia region, northeastern Italy: Erik Paakspuu (kosmonaut42), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/kosmonaut42/9783132755/

Italian actress and model Alessia Piovan (born May 20, 1985) plays Anna Nadal, whose mysterious death is clarified through flashbacks.
premiere of The Men Who Stare at Goats (film), 66th Venice International Film Festival; Tuesday, September 8, 2009, 18:43: nicolas genin, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alessia_Piovan_-_66th_Venice_International_Film_Festival,_2009.jpg

"CHUD.com Exclusive: The Girl By the Lake Trailer" (1:19)
Uploaded July15, 2009, by MCP to YouTube ~ URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBvacXbtK7I