Purehearted teen Lazzaro is content living as a sharecropper in rural Italy, but an unlikely friendship with the marquise’s son will change his world.
Heureux comme Lazzaro, 행복한 라짜로, Щастливият Лазаро, Lykkelige Lazzaro, Lazzaro Felice, Lazzaro feliz, Счастливый Лазарь, 幸福的拉扎罗, Mutlu Lazzaro, Щасливий Ладзаро, Щастливия Лазаро, Lazzaro Den Lykkelige, Szczęśliwy Lazzaro, A szent és a farkas, לזרו השמח, Срећан као Лазаро, Glücklich wie Lazzaro, Ευτυχισμένος Λάζαρος, Šťastný Lazzaro, Lycklig som Lazzaro, 幸福的拉札洛, 幸福的拉扎羅, Feliz como Lázaro, Fericit ca Lazzaro, 幸福なラザロ, Lazzaro feliç
France Cannes Film Festival 
Russia12+ Message to Man International Film Festival 
South Korea Busan International Film Festival 
Turkey Filmekimi 
Italy 
Brazil12 
Switzerland16 
Sweden11 Switzerland16 
Hungary12 France Switzerland16 
Czechia 
Netherlands12 
Greece 
UK12A 
Denmark11 
Slovakia12 South Korea12 
Austria12 
USAPG-13 
Ireland12 
JapanG 
Germany12 Netherlands12 Austria Brazil Czechia Denmark France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Japan Netherlands Russia Slovakia South Korea Sweden Switzerland Turkey UK USA 
What is the role of a saint in a world that has turned its back on God in favor of capitalism?
Surreal and funny and aching, the movie makes a potent political point while conjuring a modern day myth out of faces, objects and gestures.
Currently streaming on Netflix. Go and fall under this movie’s spell.
Lazzaro is the human version of Paddington and seeing them sad is the worst thing that has ever happened to cinema.
Weirdest Marvel Superhero origin yet.
I love:
- White sunlight with blackened edges
- Flip phones that only work when you extend the antenna
- Howling until time stands still
- Rocks that feel as foreign but look as beautiful as the moon
- Profiteroles with chocolate and fresh cream
- Dreams that come alive
- The smell of a good man
i get emotional any time i try to wrap up this film in words. i look at lazzaro the way he looks towards the moon & speaks to it as a friend. it’s like he knows a secret – that you can whisper and still be heard.
whenever i see the moon now, i think of lazzaro. but it feels different to me. i feel like i’m always chasing the moon, looking for her, while she always chooses to follow lazzaro. just like the music, they trail behind him, watch over him, and shield him with their light.
this world is evil and we don't deserve people like lazzaro...
the first half was giving sunshine-coded autistic boy falls for midnight rain-coded adhd twink
Finally gave Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro a proper watch on Netflix. (Wish I was able to see on the big screen because Hélène Louvart’s Super 16 is lush) And it’s one of my faves of the year. What a fantastic follow-up to The Wonders.
Arriflex 416, Zeiss Ultra Prime Lenses
Laboratory - Augustus Color, Roma, Italy
Super 16 mm (Kodak Vision3 250D 7207, Vision3 500T 7219)
Cierren la puerta, que se va la música.
Full review on Lazzaro Felice here.
Alice Rohrwacher is the real deal. This movie has it all and more. A profoundly moving, deeply inhabited film that soars as a portrayal of inequality and exploitation, friendship and selflessness. Lazzaro, as a character, is so impressively, unrelentling unselfish that he is essentially unfit for the world he lives in. Rohrwacher’s use of magical realism allows her to extend the “metaphor” that is Lazzaro beyond just the time he is born into, broadening - ever so lightly - the scope of this story.
I was particularly struck by the distinct change in visual style and aesthetic between the first and second hour. It helps deepen the story, serving as a showcase for Rohrwacher’s…
So the wolf approaches. He sharpens his claws and teeth, ready to devour him. But he smells something he has never smelled before, and he stops... It was the smell of a good man.
This is a fable - the story of a man too pure, innocent, and selfless to exist among other people. The film liberally invests the story with magical realism, just to get us all on the same page here. Lazzaro's story is here for us to learn something from, not to try and dissect.
This world - the real world - treats the character traits that Lazzaro exudes as exploits to take advantage of. He's a sucker to do your work, a sap to pay for…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
1) Animals
Lazzaro is a brother to Tancredi just like a wolf is a brother to a chihuahua. The domesticated breed is weak in body, unable to survive in the open on their own (remember Tancredi being helpless without Lazzaro around), its health weathering away quickly with time. Whereas the wild animal is strong in body, comfortable in wilderness, and immortal. This is a difference that is implied between a prehistoric man (Lazzaro) and a civilized man (Tancredi).
Another animal that is strongly associated with Lazzaro is a lamb, an animal often imagined to be an opposite of a wolf, a prey to its predator (a peasant to landowner, a worker to capitalist). Even the colors of Lazzaro's clothes hint…
