La prima cosa bella

Most people agree that the Golden Age of Italian movies started with Rosselini's "Rome-Open City" and ended about 15 years before Mastroianni's death. What's the cause of that, we can't be sure of.

This film about the drug depending teacher, who remembers his mother during the last decade of that era and how she involuntarily destroyed the lives of him and his sister. They really haven't begun yet. His mother another example of the common Italian film theme "Too beautiful for her own good".

But that theme would have been done better in the hands of the golden Italian directors and good acting really don't make that much difference here.

A beautiful and touching movie. The actors are really good - Pandolfi and Mastandrea deliver probably their best performance ever, while the common effort of Stefania Sandrelli and Micaela Rammazzotti depicts a wonderful, unforgettable female lead character, that somehow accomplish the not so easy task of being at the same time down-to-earth and larger-than-life. The story is full of grief and pain, and thanks to the overall great acting performance, those feelings seem so real that they will make you suffer (and cry). At the same time, anyway, the script is full of funny moments that will make you laugh, and laughs will wash away the tears – you know, just like in the real life. Strongly recommended to anybody.

Paolo Virzi, the last heir of Italian comedy recounts the resentment of a child for a mother too generous, the ambitions of a great little woman in Italy in the sixties, the Italian province full of prejudices, the disease as an instrument of reconciliation. Between past and present, helped by a splendid cast including Stefania Sandrelli (muse of Pietro Germi and Bernardo Bertolucci, Ettore Scola return in a leading role with all his talent as an actress animal). Paolo Virzi signs his best movie, a film that makes you cry and laugh at the same time, a film that remains in the heart... Paolo Virzi, the last heir of Italian comedy recounts the resentment of a child for a mother too generous, the ambitions of a great little woman in Italy in the sixties, the Italian province full of prejudices, the disease as an instrument of reconciliation. Between past and present, helped by a splendid cast including Stefania Sandrelli (muse of Pietro Germi and Bernardo Bertolucci, Ettore Scola return in a leading role with all his talent as an actress animal). Paolo Virzi signs his best movie, a film that makes you cry and laugh at the same time, a film that remains in the heart...

Having just seen this movie I'd say that Virzì is seriously working on becoming a major director. His technique is steadily evolving, his stories becoming more and more complex yet intimate, digging in his own youth and background while finding his own voice and style. Not quite Fellini yet but he seems to have a penchant for rolling in wallowing, like the great master, in his own experiences, remembrances and fantasies. It's a great compliment to say no matter what confusion one might find in the plot, one cannot really stop watching it. And like a good book, once finished watching, one feels like going back an looking again at some pages to better savor them. I don't know if this was Oscar material (too intimate, and a bit difficult to read for a general audience) but surely a movie to watch again after a few days, like a good book to leaf through now and again. This is what French movie directors have been trying to convey at their best. Kudos to Virzì.

I could not even finish to watch the entire movie. From the first moments I had the feeling of something already seen so many other times: the usual boring italian comedy where I know how the movie goes and which image of Italy wants to give, as if time had never passed since 1950.