Cruel, Usual, Necessary: The Passion of Silvio Narizzano (2024) on Netflix

Plot summary

Silvio Narizzano directed Georgy Girl, a sleeper hit that brought him wide attention. That single success shaped how many people saw his career, and for some it reduced him to a director with one notable film. The essay revisits the rest of his output, a body of work that drew little notice and at times met with unfair dismissal. Guiding the viewer is a film historian who argues that Narizzano's films served him as a way to confront private struggles, sometimes to ugly effect and sometimes to beautiful effect. He also proposes that the director's sensibility was distinctly gay, in ways both open and hidden. Interviews and archival material survey a career that has resisted easy summary.