minder-77155

I hate going to the cinema, especially when I know I risk finding so many people inside the hall. I hate that because people are noisy and annoying. It seems impossible not to use the smartphone during the screening, not to comment with friends, not to move continuously on the seat, not to eat crunchy things, not to cough or sneeze, not to steal the armrest of the person close to you.

For me the cinema it's a sort of war scenario.

I hate the cinema but I love it too, so sometimes I take the risk and go to war.

I already knew Paola Cortellesi as an actress, and, sorry for this, I think she was not a good one. IMHO she did better when she was a comedian. I already knew Valerio Mastandrea too, he's a good comedy actor... and when one says "comedy actor" he is not saying "actor".

What can I expect from this movie if not another negative experience with my seat neighbors and a modest interpretation from these two comedians?

And instead, sometimes, the cinema does what it should do: magic!

During the screening, people start to pay attention, for real, start to literally sink into the movie.

The black and white film throws us all in another dimension, in a past era, in our grandparents' world. A poor, dirty, harsh, primitive, retrograde, sexist world. But it is the world from where we all come, so, in a sense, we already know it.

And we start to feel the characters.

Paola becomes Delia.

Sorry Valerio, for me you won't be nothing else then Ivano for the rest of your career.

Every single actor is credible, tridimensional, real.

All of us viewers simply stop to be alive, we are in the movie now.

We start to laugh, to cry, to stop breathing in perfect timing with the scenes.

Until the end... when the images go out.

The cinema hall is completely silent.

We freeze for a moment, realizing we are again in the real world.

We are astounded, beaten, emotionally exhausted.

And then the applause started. My first experience with spontaneous applause in a cinema hall outside of the movie festivals. The cinema was empty of pop-corn eaters, coughers, and smartphone users, not cinephiles, but everyone knows that something special has just happened: we've just attended a perfect movie, a masterpiece.

Brava Paola.

I really liked this movie, not so much for the actors' performances, but for the strong role the city has in it.

Venice is a strange city, strangled by its needs to survive in this modern world and its deep traditions and history.

The movie shows this dilemma with a strong metaphor: the two brothers embody the two souls of this city, the old one based on traditional activities like fishing and the new one based on tourism.

The two souls conflict in real life as well as in the fictional story.

Today Venice is a city that only shows its modern face to the visitors: the monuments, the palaces, the rich hotels, the canals, the gondole, the taxi boat, the fake Murano glasses, the poor food, the overpriced coffee... But guys it's a real (dying) city and can offer a lot more: the sad lagoon landscape, the old ruined houses, the traditional food (the "moecca" is a sort of crab that has a main role in the movie), the people that really live there as a unique example of a community completely living on the water.

If you planned to be in Venice at some point or if you already visited it in the past, watch this movie and you'll discover the tragedy of a conflict that goes on stage every day in this beautiful city.

You'll love the movie and the city too, even more than you probably love it today.