Nous nous sommes tant aimés!

Sorry for being much too lenient but in these perverse times where everybody is talking of global warming, please excuse me when I say that I just have wonderful praises for this great film. It is great on every front. What is the yardstick by which a great film can be measured ? A great film can be recognized by its inherent ability to make viewers shed some emotional tears and weep inconsolably. This is what this great masterpiece by Ettore Scola did to me. We all loved each other is such a pleasant film that it can be compared to a sweet lullaby. The ease with which the various dramatic events happen is a joy to behold. I am not really sure about this fact but I think that may be French master Claude Sautet must have been influenced by this film when he decided to make a similar masterpiece called "Vincent, François, Paul et les autres".Which one is the better film ? Watch both of them and find out for yourself.

"We All Loved Each Other So Much" (Italian, 1974): A film by Ettore Scola. We follow three men-friends through 30 years - weaving in and out of each others their lives, alone or in various combinations, with one particular woman. They met as "brothers in war" during the Italian Resistance of WWII. With eventual peace, each traveled their own paths, crossing and remeeting every so often. The b/w photography is beautiful, the scoring perhaps a little heavy-handed (but considering the time – 1974 – downright subtle), the period "looks" seems accurate enough, and the acting by all involved is good. I enjoyed some of the film's devices, such as all the actors freezing in position and the one "in thought" getting a spotlight, the occasional near-repeat of a scene/incident, the actors sometimes speaking directly to you, and other breaks with the "reality" of a film. No doubt Woody Allen saw this work before his making "Annie Hall". You might also think of this film as a more somber, sophisticated version of "The Big Chill" with fewer main characters and more internal assessment.

My only all-time favorite, ever since 1979 in Tuschinski. The theme is simple, strong and light, and does not evoke grand historical events but a mere musing on one's own growing up. The use of black/white and sepia flashbacks, changing into into present day colors at a sidewalk drawing, give extra depth to past and present with only a few stroke of the brush. Extra attention has been devoted to sounds and melody: the voices of the main characters reinforce the roles. The melody theme is played simply on one trumpet and echoes the simplicity of the theme. The memory of the move does not fade even after 25 years. I guess it was intended to do so. A very natural composition.

Director Ettore Scola weaves a sensitive comedy-drama about the friendship of three men and the one woman each has loved. The men meet each other near the end of the Nazi occupation of Italy. As the next thirty years pass they remain friends although their lives take very different paths and become tinged with sadness and regret. The woman who pops in and out of their lives is Luciana (Stefania Sandrelli), an aspiring actress whose career peaks when she is cast as an extra in a Fellini movie. The three perennial friends are played by Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi and Stefano Satta Flores. Veteran actor Aldo Fabrizi (the priest in OPEN CITY) does a remarkable turn as a powerful industrialist who is as grotesquely unlikeable as he is grotesquely corpulent. Film buffs will enjoy the way Scola has cleverly included footage of DeSica's THE BICYCLE THIEF along with scenes of De Sica explicating that famous movie of his. They will also enjoy a funny re-creation of the filming of the Trevi fountain scene from LA DOLCE VITA, complete with Marcello Mastroianni and Federico Fellini. This is a very beautiful film about how individuals and society change over the years while friendship, "amicizia", remains an enduring value.

A great movie by a great director in a unique creative state of grace. Some of the scenes are pure poetry: the sudden change from b/w to colour picture (underlined by a moving music score), the dramatic conclusion of a night out in Piazza di Spagna, the overall feeling of nostalgia permeating the entire movie. Yes, this is a movie that will age like good wine. You can grow old with this movie, watch out not be caught too much into its spires of nostalgia. Just glance at Vittorio Gassman last, defeated, cynical look in his face, here the actor and the man are one and the same. The rest of the cast are just as effective and well sorted, nothing is out of place, the synergy between Manfredi, Satta-Flores, Sandrelli, and the great Aldo Fabrizi will keep you enthralled. Simply cinematographic art at its best.