Casomai

I loved this movie and I happened to watch it twice in 2 months, in 2002. I already liked Stefania Rocca, but I didn't think Fabio Volo would have been a great actor (telling from his previous TV shows). Instead he was. And so was the priest. The soft simplicity with which the movies explores a whole love story, starting from the beginning, growing to the climax and then facing ever-increasing difficulties, to reach the final break... was really special. Some moments are really enjoyable, and some other moments will make you cry, as you are pulled, along with the 2 wed characters, into deep troubles, feeling love that vanishes minute after minute and, actually, without really knowing "why" they're not in love anymore.

I'd say 9 stars out of 10, even if I may understand that, to non-italian people, it may loose some of its beauty.

A sophisticated contemporary fable about the stresses that work to loosen and ultimately unbind the vows of marriage. The main thrust of the narrative arises from a 'homily' spoken by a country priest following the wedding vows of a young cosmopolitan couple from Milan. In it, the future course of the marriage is spelled out, which bit by bit frays from the stresses of modern life. The 'moral' of this story within a story is that in order for a marriage to work out, both now, and in the past, it has been necessary for that relationship to be abutted by family and friends. This film was a relative blockbuster by domestic Italian standards. It's a terrible shame that this film is not available in either DVD or VHS.

Casomai opens with a young couple driving to a chapel somewhere in the hills to arrange to be married there. They meet the priest, who steals every scene he is in, and the ceremony is arranged. At the ceremony, the priest draws out of the couple and their friends and families their stories, told in flashbacks and flashforwards. We see the course of the couple's relationship through newly-married times, the birth of their first child, and onwards. Will the marriage survive the pressures of friends and family, of work, of child-care, of financial worries, and of cooling passion?

The movie starts promisingly, with the priest being the most interesting character. But once the movie concentrates on the couple, I found my interest and sympathy waning as their relationship became more unhappy. The movie might appeal if you delight in sharing other people's problems, but after about an hour I found myself wondering how much more I had to endure. I found the ending quite weak. I gave the movie 5 out of 10--neutral--the clever parts offsetting the flat parts.

I now that these days, some people wan't see a movie without movie styling, so much Dogma, Lars Von, Watchosky Brothers, are changed what we expect in a movie, perhaps, Casomai is no-one-more-Independent-non-american movie, the movie take all movies resources and language to tell us a simple history about love and marriage, but much more .. Fully of views, lectures and let you thinking ... and I'm sure, you can't fell boried any second of a long 116 minutes. I calculate that don't have a single scene longer that 3 o 2 1/2 minutes.

I am right now in front of the tv, watching Casomai. It is changing, it id evolving or better...devolving. It begin with a courius wedding of the two protagonists where their love-story is reported. After that everything change, a child was born, and all the rest usually happen in a couple. It is a not a special movie because it talks about a normal couple, and normality is the center of this movie. It doesn't want to show us something particular, there is nothing new, it is just a normal love-story, the story of a couple, and being normal it become different from the rest. It is also a flashing movie, everything is short, every scene is long just some seconds. It is a reported story, many things are known because friends and parents talk about that, and their opinion is central, the opinions create the story and destroy it. It is a simple story of a couple as I said, but it is not boring, it just show a couple, should be everything known, it is, but I am sure that every one of you will want to know what happen, so don't forget to watch the end!