Diary of a Film

In this atmospheric if slightly mannered novel from Govinden (This Brutal House), a Zagreb filmmaker roams an Italian city in the lead-up to the festival premiere of his latest film. The unnamed “maestro” meets a woman, Cosima, strolls through the city with her, visits the murals her boyfriend had painted in the 1980s before dying by suicide, and reads her novel, which he hopes to adapt for his next project. As the visit draws to a close, her hesitation to cede the rights—rooted in her objection to his directorial vision—provides a sliver of drama. Govinden shines in scenes involving the filmmaker observing his two young stars as they negotiate their growing fame, tenuous new romance with each other, and sense of melancholy that they won’t be able to recapture their magical intimacy on future projects. There are some lovely paeans to a fading film world: “This is what cinema is: the noise, torn sprockets patched together; the heat and smell of burning from the machine.” Too often, though, characters have a stage-ready monologue or affected declaration at the ready: “If you are a flâneur, maestro, then I’m a flâneuse.... Walking is what gives me life, and what stimulates my ideas,” says Cosima. Nonetheless, readers can’t help being seduced by the protagonist’s commitment to a life of art. (May)