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Daniele Luchetti’s project La Nostra Vita (Our Life) is the only Italian film in competition for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival 2010.

This will be Luchetti’s fourth time at Cannes, and looks like he’s got himself some good story since we already had a chance to hear from him that “above and beyond his difficulties, it’s the story of a whole country.” Check the rest of report…

So, this is story about working-class man in Rome, who must come to terms with a death caused by a traumatic event.

Luchetti said that “The film mixes various horizons, such as life and profound pain. It is simultaneously furious and lively. I worked less on lightening up the tone this time, in order to let the truth emerge”.

He also added that he had “a great desire look to at my country through a character that...

Rome -- Paolo Sorrentino’s bio-pic “Il Divo” and “Gomorra,” the organized crime thriller from Matteo Garone, dominated the nominations for Italy’s David dei Donatello awards, it was announced Thursday, with a total 27 noms between them.

The two films have combined to win multiple awards over the last year, starting with the 2008 Festival de Cannes, where they won the Special Jury Award and Grand Prix prize, respectively.

“Gomorra” has earned more notoriety internationally, earning a Golden Globe nomination for Foreign Film and being selected as Italy’s official candidate for the Oscars. But it is “Il Divo” that can boast the most nominations for Italy’s highest film honor with 16, compared to 11 for “Gomorra.” The maximum number of categories an Italian film is eligible for is 19.

Both films were nominated in the best film category, with Fausto Brizzi’s romance “Ex,” Paolo Virzi’s comedy “Tutta la Vita Davanti...

Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo, a biopic of seven-time Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti, and Matteo Garrone’s organized crime thriller Gomorrah, both starring Toni Servillo, were the top nominees for the Italian Academy’s 2009 David di Donatello awards. Il Divo led the field with 16 nominations, followed by Gomorrah with 11. Both films, which are in the running in the best picture category, have already won several international awards: Il Divo received the Special Jury Award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and a European Film Award for best actor Toni Servillo (also for Gomorrah); Gomorrah won Cannes’ Grand Prix and five European Film Awards, including best film and Servillo’s shared best actor prize. Gomorrah was also Italy’s submission for the 2009 best foreign language film Academy Award, but was surprisingly bypassed at nomination time. Others vying for the David di Donatello for best film are Fausto Brizzi’s romance Ex,...

ROME -- Having recovered from his poorly received (especially at home) period film "Napoleon & Me," Paolo Virzi has gone back to doing what he does best in Tutta la vita davanti (roughly, Your Whole Life Ahead of You). He offers up a bittersweet, at times surreal snapshot of contemporary Italy, this time through a comically biting critique of temping, a phenomenon only now exploding in the country. Loosely based on a novel by Michela Murgia, the film reaches a broad audience: the young for its central characters, the old(er) for its ultimately accurate depiction of starting out in the world. It is commercial enough to span wide arthouse audiences abroad, especially in the U.S. if marketed correctly.

The fairy tale begins, voice-over and all, with Marta (Isabella Ragonese) graduating from college cum laude and happily setting out to find a job in publishing. Dozens of fruitless interviews later, she becomes a live-in babysitter for single mother Sonia (Micaela Ramazzotti) and starts temping at a call center run by an exuberant and ruthless manager (Sabrina Ferilli).

The giddiness of her first adult adventure wears off quickly when the lousiness of her job becomes apparent, in the form of cruel bosses, envious co-workers and harassed customers. She meets an impassioned labor union worker (Valerio Mastandrea) and soon divulges the company's unfair practices -- as much out of her desire for just treatment as for his charisma.

Ragonese plays Marta, an intelligent, caring and strong young woman, well and you know she will make the most of the life she has ahead of her. But it is the secondary characters who give the film the gravitas necessary to keep the story from being breezy. Sex symbol Ferilli is both moving and repellant as the woman who appears to have it all together but is an empty shell, even when the plot takes her way over the top. And Ramazzotti is perfect as the ballsy knockout who can have all the men she wants, which threatens to lead her to her only marketable skill.

Having made a real-life fairy tale without stooping to cynicism or facile judgments, Virzi knows there are no happy endings. But there are happy moments, many of which depend precisely on the kindness of strangers, as in the film's finale.

TUTTA LA VITA DAVANTI

Medusa Film, Motorino Amaranto

Sales: Adriana Chiesa Enterprises

Credits:

Director: Paolo Virzi

Writer: Virzi, Francesco Bruni

Producers: Daniele Mazzocca

Director of photography: Nicola Pecorini

Music: Franco Piersanti

Costume designer: Francesca Sartori

Editor: Esmerelda Calabria

Cast:

Marta: Isabella Ragonese

Daniela: Sabrina Ferilli

Claudio: Massimo Ghini

Giorgio: Valerio Mastandrea

Lucio 2: Elio Germano

Sonia: Micaela Ramazzotti

Maria Chiara: Valentina Carnelutti

Running time -- 118 minutes

No MPAA rating...