fruttamartorana

This documentary follows a family in Calaveras, Northern California. A bleached-blond dad,40, his ex-wife, and their 4 children from 13 to army age, for a period of over half a year. The dad uses ecstasy, and goes to the raves. Discovering this had been to much for his wife, thus they were separated on the point where they started to make this documentary. "There is not much to do in this city, so we might as well drug ourselves" is a comment that tried to be light in the beginning - if in California they find "nothing to do" one might ask how many young people do ecstasy then in the states where there really isn't much to do, such as Montana or Utah. 1 of 8 teenagers in USA has tried ecstasy. It can cause a lot of negative things - dependency, problems for health, problems in family, society etc. But numbers and government's educative brochures are onlly numbers and warnings - so following one family where there are users of it, for a certain period of time, can probably show a lot better what it can really cause, to real people and not just numbers. The documentary feels a bit long (over 90 minutes) but a lot of 'slower' material feels appropriate - the looks on people's face in certain moments, some shoots of rave life, and of course things such as the family members explaining why they use(d) ecstasy.

This is my favorite all time black and movie. To understand the humor, you need to know enough Italian (and sometimes Naples accent too) to understand it, and to understand the jokes.. they don't translate to other languages.

Toto' aka Antonio de Curtis for me is what Chaplin was to many - except that he is funny with the movies with audio, unlike Chaplin. There are many of his movies I like a lot and enjoy seing after having been a long time abroad (out of Italy), but this is far the greatest. Toto' and Peppino are two poor men from the Southern Italy countryside, and hear that their nephew is dating a 'bad woman' (the title means that, but not necessarily in bad sense) in Milan, and they go there to rescue him.. thinking they are abroad.. this movie is so full of timeless jokes, it is impossible to watch this and be on a bad mood.