Die Messe ist aus

I came to Nanni Moretti from his wise and witty later movies _Caro Diario_ and _The Son's Room_. So in _La Messa_ I was surprised to see a bitter, angry, and quite selfish Moretti in the role of a suburban priest who seems--much like the psychoanalyst of _The Son's Room_--utterly incapable of helping those who put themselves in his care.

There's lots to like in this movie: the somewhat decrepit but nonetheless lovely settings around Rome, the nods to other great Italian movies (Moretti, in his cassock, playing soccer with the school kids, calls to mind Rossellini's _Rome, Open City_), the intense and largely convincing story. I found particularly compelling a courtroom confrontation involving a judge, a defendant, and Moretti's priest as a witness. I was, on the whole, moved by Moretti's take on the priest's dealings with his brothers-in-arms from what were presumably their days as leftist activists.

On a final note, people are always comparing Moretti to Woody Allen. I don't see why. Their movies have almost nothing in common. I have never seen Allen as anything more than a second-rate standup comic, or as a caricature. Moretti, on the other hand, is a human being.

"La Messa è finita" begins like Bunuel's "Nazarin ": a priest who believes in a pure religion,an idealist who does not realize that the society around him is primarily materialistic ;it ends like Bunuel's movie ,or more likely like the same' s "Viridiana" , two works in which both heroes accept ,the former ,a symbolic pineapple , the latter ,a menage à trois.

Since half a century , Catholic churches get more and more empty ; the ritual has lost its mystery ,gone with the latin of yore.When he enters his church ,Don Giulio finds a place covered with dust and cobwebs ;apart from his two altar boys, nobody attends his mess.The world outside is not prepared to accept a strict moral .

The former priest is now a happy husband and a father of a child he adores (" you can love both humanity and the one you cherish") ; his father deserts his faithful wife for a woman who could be a daughter ,and he wants to have a baby ;his sister ,who 's pregnant by a man who is more interested in the fate of rapaces and snakes (ahead of his time,as far as ecology is concerned) ,wants an abortion ;during a premarital meeting ,a future husband laughs himself silly at the biblical meaning of the verb " to know" .......Cesare,an adult who attends Sunday school, can only be considered a joke in this context .

As the movie progresses, Don Giulio realizes he's more and more concerned with himself: "when I hear somebody' s confession,I can't help but thinking of my own problems "; when his dear mom commits suicide ,the first question which comes to his mind is : "who will think about me now?";And his last mess revolves around I ,me ,mine.

Trust Moretti to avoid clichés and to come up with unusual scenes : the most questionable is the beating up near the fountain ;it comes to soon in the movie .

"La Messa è finita" ,and when the unfortunate parents of his future work ,and IMHO materpiece "la stanza del figlio " (2001) lose their only child , they will find some consolation,not in religion,but in meeting their boy's friend.

"La messa è finita" is one of the best movies ever directed by Nanni Moretti, telling the story of a young priest and his life among relatives and friends. Their problems urge the priest to evaluate more deeply his vocation. With regard to other movies by Moretti, this one is not as overtly autobiographical as other, more recent titles. This allows the characteristic irony of Moretti a more fluid hand in depicting the little tragedies of his generation. At the same time, he is able to provide a thoughtful and touching portrait of a young priest in an Italy which is less and less Catholic.

A great and very touching film. Similraties can be find between "le journal d'un curé de campagne" of Bresson, "winter light" of Bergman and that wonderful "la messa è finita". It was strange to me to find out a Moretti film which has not got a very determined autobiographical narration. This film is not "hilarous" or even "funny", it is about the ability to faith, to believe in someone, to love someone. The ironic face of Moretti is on the background: A confused Italian society panorama with its lots generations, wit its moral values between a traditional Catholicism and a capitalistic and individualistic vision of a society. A film of spring, but the feelings that it brings are more like the feelings of autumn. It is melancholic. It is harsh. It is about a young man who believes and who dares to return: Turning back to an island that the winds blows so powerfully that the church is attached to the soil with the chains. young man who has alienated from the world of his childhood. Rome of his memories does not exist anymore. His family, his parents, his brothers and sisters, everything about his past has changed. So a film about changing time. A film about someone who is not able to understand what is going on between the couples, who is daring to investigate the sense of love and being a couple.

A very well-written film: Screenplay is literally good. Not just a portrait of a man or a panorama of a society, but also the stories of happiness-es and sadness-es. A film about inner-life's. It is highly bergmanesque -- A film that ends where it begins. A film as a gallery of strange characters from the misanthrope brother to ex-communist. A very courageous film proves the talent of Moretti which can be situated among Bresson or Bergman. (Not only Allen and some other comics.)

A priest returns to his home village expecting to have an impact on both family and friends. He is hugely disappointed when he finds that even his mother and father have grown apart with his father's old life crisis and his sister's dilemma. I was reminded of the Irish Drama Calvary which had a similar premise. This is not quite as good but as a struggling Catholic-American, was impressed by the humanity of the script. The Mass is ended, watch this film.