Ricomincio da tre

🎬 I'm starting from three - Review

✅ Introduction to the film

Ricomincio da tre, a 1981 film, is a comedy/dramatic film written, directed and performed by Massimo Troisi, flanked by Lello Arena, his historical companion of the theatrical trio "La Smorfia". In Italy it was a real revelation, so much so that it beats at the box office even Star Wars - The Empire hits the box office.

📖 Plot (no spoilers)

Gaetano is a young Neapolitan who feels the need to change his life. Tired of the routine and family pressures, he decides to leave Naples to move to Florence. On this journey he meets people, lives experiences, faces love and above all himself, in a path made of small discoveries and great reflections. It's a story of escape, but also of a return to something more authentic.

💭 What do I think

The film is certainly not a masterpiece, but it is a beautiful film. He has a calm rhythm, almost "in restraint", yet he manages to capture and pass that hour and a half very well. Under the mask of comedy, there are profound themes such as identity, self-esteem and the sense of inadequacy. Gaetano constantly devalues himself, marked by old comparisons with a neighbour that his father repended him as a child.

Marta, the female character, plays an important role: she helps Gaetano face his fears, look inside himself and maybe even forgive himself

🎬 My favourite scene

My favourite scene is that of the "crazy". I think it's the funniest of the movie. The acting of Troisi and Marco Messeri is phenomenal: the comic times are perfect, the dialogues are surreal but credible, and the alchemy between the two actors works great. In a few minutes a memorable moment is created, which very well represents the tone of the film: intelligent, spontaneous and brilliant.

👍 Do I recommend it?

Yes, I recommend it to those who love simple but meaningful stories, where you laugh delicately and get attached to the characters. It is perfect for those who want to get closer to the world of Massimo Troisi and understand what made him so unique in the Italian cinema panorama. A movie to watch when you want a bit of real lightness, not superficial.

"First of all, as a blue-chip comedian, Troisi possesses a singular personage, he doesn't deign to do knockabouts (unlike his contemporary Roberto Benigni), and his humor is not droll, which extracts bona fide affinity and comedic response out of banal and ordinary scenarios with his almost child-like earnestness. In the film, he plays Gaetano, a young man from provincial Naples, who decides not to "start from scratch" but "start from three", just because, in Florence.

Through Gaetano's shyness, Troisi inhabits him comfortably and swimmingly as a simple-minded, sympathetic, doe-eyed guy, who has yet found what is the purpose of his life and tends to float adrift by the transition from provinciality to cosmopolitan independence, especially by the relationship with his new girlfriend Marta (Marchegiani), who is a nurse in a mental hospital and a writer-to-be, whose modernized ideology Gaetano cannot really wrap his head around."

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This flick is a masterpiece for every 'commedia all'italiana' enjoyer. It is the first film directed by the late Massimo Troisi and besides the subtle potrait of italian society and the enourmous differences that, still 40 years apart, influence the country, this movie touches your heart for a different reason. Massimo's humor set differences aside and reunited people under the light of true laugh. Rest easy Massimo, you'll never be forgotten.

The movie is built around Troisi's talent (and here and there this is noticeable) but some scenes ought to the history of italian comedy and have entered into common language. Even if it's 40 years old - another historical period, another reality - its vis comica is still fresh!

This film is about a Neapolitan who moves to Florence. "Emigrant?" everyone asks him. "No, tourist. Everywhere we Neapolitans go, people ask if we are emigrants. Neapolitans travel also." The man in this lunatic comedy, and also its director, is Massimo Troisi who seems like a combination of Chico Marx, Totò, and Woody Allen on Dexedrine. He is as apt a comedian as a performer and his inspired nonsense can send an attuned audience (I suspect his comedy doesn't travel well) into convulsions of laughter. Here is a man who doesn't want to start a new life from zero or from scratch but from three. After all each of us has had two experiences in life that weren't that bad! Massimo Troisi is known to American audiences as the hero of "Il Postino". The actor died soon after completing work on that film.