L'ultimo bacio

Good for Gabrielle Muccino, who wrote and directed this film!. A very good film. The user comment I read in this board mentioned whether or not to take seriously the italian's temper or if the outbursts were meant to make people laugh. The answer (from my South-American Latin perspective) is...of course they were serious and very real!. We don't usually "hide" our feelings. If we feel angry, we show it! If we feel great, we show! When we laugh, we laugh out loud! When we love, we do it with passion! The film is very good. Martina Stella (the 18-yr old high school girl who falls in love with the 29-yr Marco) in her featured debut is very good, and simply delightful to watch, since she is actually very pretty and sexy.

I saw this film on DVD in the same session along with "Bella Martha" (also written/directed by a woman, Sandra Nettelbeck, check it out). Even when the latter is superior, "L'ultimo baccio" (Italian for "The Last Kiss") is nevertheless a very good film. This film mixes a first-rate modern cinematography with what used to be called "Italian realism" of the 50s and 60s. The mix is great and works fine.

"L'Ultimo Bacio" is probably a movie most men will recognize themselves in all too well, because it was based on what most of us actually feel when they are finally expected to grow up when they are around thirty. They are expected to settle, to get married and to start a family. All very important decisions and we never feel very comfortable making them. Do we want to give up life as an irresponsible "bachelor", will we try to spend the rest of our lives with only one woman, are we ready to raise kids...

If you expect any answers from this movie, than I'll have to disappoint you, because you won't really find any good ones. It shows how four male friends desperately try to be free. One of them meets an 18-year old schoolgirl at a wedding party, falls in love with her and betrays his pregnant fiancée, jeopardizing his entire future and family. One of the others only fights with his wife, the third one wants to escape form his dying father and the last one wants to keep living as a hippie. They all have their reasons to leave their actual lives and they start making plans to make a trip around the world, but will they leave or finally accept the real life...

In a way this is a very typical Italian movie. Personally I love that, but I guess there are several people who don't. The style, the music, the acting, it all can be found in similar Italian movies and less in other European productions. So if you absolutely hate Italian movies, than you better don't even start watching it. In my opinion this isn't a movie for very young people either. I'm not saying they shouldn't watch it, but I think an 18-year old probably can't understand all too well why it's so difficult to make that important step once you're thirty, just because he or she doesn't have to think about it yet. Being almost 27 myself, I know all too well, what it means.

All in all this is a very nice movie that I would recommend to most people. Despite what you might think this isn't a very corny movie and has absolutely nothing to do with how most Hollywood comedies with such a message would look like. It's wonderful, it's realistic, it's everything I need in a movie and that's why I give it an 8/10.

The generation of 30-year-old is under study in Italy nowadays. Between jobs, high rents, low salaries, prefer stay with their parents and not getting married. But they also give the impression they reject responsibility and adult life (fancy the French film "Tanguy" was drawn from an Italian law case!). Check out "I laureati" by Leonardo Pieraccioni to find a film with a similar subject.

But there is not only the 30-year-old crisis, there is also a 50-year-old crisis shown in the film. Which enlarges the focus of the picture to love life and commitment in general. Love is shown in its "mortality". It ends. Family life is disappointing and suffocating, for the 30-year-old just as for the 50. The temptation of escaping is great.

But it may be too late. Or you don't have courage enough. Or it is not really what you want. Then staying at home and resigning oneself seems to be the next best thing, but the only available one. Is this happiness? I don't know. Someone may be satisfied with the "happy end" where every thing is put together, but I personally retained a feeling of uncomfortableness. Pay attention to the very last moments of the film. The "we reap as we sow" message.

Actors: I loved Stefania Sandrelli, courageous and ironic enough to let the director film her CLOSE and show all the wrinkles, the years that have passed by. She is credible and expressive. I also love Sergio Castellito, always great. Martina Stella is very "fresh" and also credible in her role. What I really could not stand are Stefano Accorsi and Giovanna Mezzogiorno!!! I don't know if it is a personal dislike, for Accorsi it may be since I hate him in almost all the films he makes, instead I liked Giovanna Mezzogiorno very much in "La finestra di fronte". But the way they acted here, always panting, this jarring repetition of "huh-huh-huh". I've read comments here wondering if this behavior is "normal". No, in my (Italian) opinion it sounds fake.

In conclusion, I advise you not to watch this film if you are planning your wedding.

Carlos (Stefano Accorsi) is a twenty-nine years old man, who works in an advertisement agency and has been living with his girlfriend Giulia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) for three years. When she gets pregnant and he meets the delicious eighteen years old Francesca (Martina Stella), his relationship with Giulia have a crisis, since he is not ready to reach adulthood. Francesca has a crush and dreams on Carlos. His three best friends have also problems with their mates: Adriano (Giorgio Pasotti) has just had a son and has problems to take the responsibilities of the fatherhood, while his wife Livia (Sabrina Impacciatory) becomes very connected to the baby, neglecting their marriage; Alberto (Marco Cocci) has no ties with any woman, limiting to use them sexually; and Paolo (Claudio Santamaria) has a passion for his former lover. Meanwhile, Giulia's mother, Anna Stefania Sandrelli), has a middle-age crisis, jeopardizing her marriage. "L'Ultimo Bacio" is a beautiful and delightful movie about relationship in different phases of life. The story is very intelligent and realistic, reaching characters of different ages to show the crisis that most of the persons pass along their lives in their relationship with their mates. Whose teenager has never had a passion for a man or woman, like the character of Francesca? And the doubts and insecurity about fatherhood or motherhood, like Carlos, Giulia, Adriano and Livia? And the love jealousy, like Paolo? And the middle age crisis, like Anna? Therefore, the story certainly catch a phase in the life of the viewer himself or herself, and he or she will certainly identify the situation of a character as his or her own. The beauties of Giovanna Mezzogiorno, with her magnificent blue eyes, and Martina Stella, with her wonderful body and look, are another attraction in this lovely and highly recommended movie. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "O Último Beijo" ("The Last Kiss")

This film was a total dissapointment. I sat through 2 hours of watching mature males acting like adolescents and bemoaning the fact that life after 19 contains responsibility. If the movie had anything real to say about the post-20 angst it would have been worthwhile but it doesn't. It no doubt sets a record for number of times characters can scream at each other on the phone but that is rather a dubious achievement. Melodrama with no soul. There's 2 hours of my life I won't get back.