DOMENICO_SOLDANI

It is about a man, Bomba, who work as gentle nurse helping aged during day, but become a violent arm for the criminal and truce underworld of Rome. The occasion to solve his trouble is a dangerous job: robber a safe containing perilous secret of Russian gangster for Islamic terrorist. The story became complicated, involving hidden Vaticans connection, mystic crisis, depicting "cruelty and weaknesses, dark lights of one metropolitan, decadent, dirty, bad Rome". It is far to perfection, also because of the low budget (less than 100k euros); many character are real life persons, as Bomba himself. But it is interesting, very different from usual noir stereotype. I suggest the vision.

In my opinion this is a typical European first quality movie. And so, I expect controversial evaluation from USA audience. It is about the discovering of a different way of life, from two adult women. Elena is middle-class, graduated in chemistry, a manager in a cosmetics factory in northern Italy. Maria (Valeria Golino) is a lower class sales clerk, with a young daughter, living in the south. So they are very far apart. Both of them have a not completely satisfactory love affair with their men. An accident put them in contact, and, by the way, they discover a quiet needs to grow up a new friendship, with a journey to the mountain. Their reciprocal knowledge not only irradiate benefice to them, but this, thanks to a quiet direction of the movie, permits also to the audience to feel good. Nothing very special take place, other than discovering the limits of our way of life, that doesn't permits real personal interactions.

I love cinema, in the recent past my opinion were that most of the production were similar in construction: Hollywood(but not only) cannot afford any waste of money. A movie must sell on its first week, so a lot of very clever works, well structured, but very few innovation. So very good movie about Africa, and very good about the magicians, and very good about what if.., like try to improve without any risk. Tornatore took the risk, during the first quarter of the movie spectator wonder if for mistake another movie is playing. The plot is very strong, maybe not all the pieces fitted well but the average is very persuading, the actors are at them best, there are no many moments in the montage that leave doubts. And when somebody make a work far away from the average, at the top of the quality, it is a masterpiece?

Yes, I confess that my approach to this movie was not so enthusiastic, Mrs. Bellucci is not my favorite actress. But the director (Blier) and Gerard Depardieu are a warranty, in my opinion. The movie is a "divertissment" played around a man, who try to buy the love of a magnificent whore(Bellucci), stating he win the price at the lottery,and so offering her a 100 thousand euros per month salary. So, could this indecent proposal buy her love? and what's about the pimp(Depardieu)? The plot has the capacity to stay light, the music helps a lot to accept the events as a play, the life is surprisingly wonderful, love is the mystery. And Monica Bellucci is a full joy, a daydream for all the middle aged, insignificant men searching for a reason to dream.

Many of the Italian movies in the last decades are about individuals, in the effort to explain the world through the eyes of a small group of men/women involved in their daily problems. Rubini, one of the prominent actor/director of this Italian "way to the movie" shows in his work all the limits of this vision, but with all the details, and gentle introspection that make this movie a pleasant and enjoyable product. The plot is about an actor, in his late forty and at the top of his life, that suddenly is slapped by the fear of a crude illness. So he must revise his life, work/love/family/friends: this is done in a very interesting mode, with smooth and calm attention, permitting the audience to read any similitude to their real life. This attention to the real world is evident in the choice of some characters (i.e the actor father is the real father of Rubini). So, if you are interested into an European movie about life, and have enjoyed "The Barbarian Invasions" I will suggest you to look at this movie too.

how could you evaluate the suggestion to enjoy the vision of a movie like this, winning the awards for best actors in Venice Festival(both male LoCascio and female Ceccarelli) but also with some Italian pro critics defining it a half delusion? My opinion is the pro had seen another movie, there was a mistake during their private vision, otherwise there is no explanation. This movie is pure poetry, I've seen it twice, at cinema and at home, and always my feeling was comparable with the state of grace that vision of masterpieces give me. The story is about a woman(with a young daughter) and a man, their normal life, aspiring just a bit of happiness, a human contact in a world in which sometimes we fell alien(a constant recall in this movie). The plot is complete, practically perfect. Enjoy it the more when you need a gentle fondling, we are not alone.

This is not only a story, this is a practically perfect mix of history and story, of private and public, of feelings,love,life. I believe in everybody who loves CINEMA there is a dream, to make a movie in which the story run like the life, in which we could feel like when, children in our bed, waiting to be catch by the sleep, we listen the tales from our parents and everything seems more real than reality. This movie is the evidence that sometimes the life could be translate in an universal language, where everybody could feel a part of himself on the screen. LA MEGLIO GIOVENTU' is the story of a family, four young brothers, along the last forty years in Italy (but it could be everywhere). There are a psychiatrist, a policeman, a lawyer and an housewife, but there are also their relatives, friends, in poor words there is the LIFE. I would suggest to see this long tale, you will feel better.

Pupi Avati is one of the best Italian director in the way he draft the scenarios, also if often at the end of his movies a little bit of delusion remain, maybe as the "ensemble" needed a different rewriting. This movie is about love. The love for the music in first: during the jazz performances the evidence of this feeling is strong. The love for the friendship, this strange link that sometimes led to unpredictable behaviors. The love for a woman, and is here were the movie let the bitter taste. Maybe for the director this feeling is more difficult to be described in real terms, in my opinion. I have enjoyed more other movies of Avati, but I believe it worth the ticket price.

one of the more controlled performance of Roberto Benigni, it worth alone, but the movie has its value also. It was sometime sweet, other bitter, if you have let a child in your soul I believe he/she would appreciate this strange mode to look at the reality, at a world sometimes too difficult to be explained or to be completely happy with. Maybe it's easier for an Italian to fully appreciate every moment and scene of this intense movie, but I strongly suggest it because Ferreri+Benigni is a couple that could happen to see only once. And maybe you would re-analyze all their productions, especially the other works of Marco Ferreri, usually more direct and bitter.Enjoy