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Director Ridley Scott is coming off an impressive run in 2021, with both “The Last Duel” and “House of Gucci” receiving awards buzz. While it remains to be seen how those two films will fare at the Academy Awards ceremony, Scott likely doesn’t even care and is prepping his very next film project at Apple Studios.

This shimmering wisp of a drama — in theaters and on VOD this Friday — offers a breezy pre-pandemic portrait of the city, following an author who wanders its crowded sidewalks and falls in with its young minds after inexplicably losing her memory. As hazily directed and ever so slightly written by Adam Leon (“Gimme the Loot,” “Tramps”), “Italian Studies” is less about solving the mystery of Alina’s sudden amnesia than asking how her surroundings might fill the wiped-clean slate of her identity in with vivid details (read our review here).

Back in 2000, a young Joaquin Phoenix starred opposite Russell Crowe in the Oscar-winning film, “Gladiator.” The Ridley Scott-directed feature showcased Phoenix as the disgusting, evil ruler, Commodus.