Le dîner

Once again Scola manages to produce high quality cinema, needing for it no more than a good cast of actors and his magistral talent. Rather than the usual Hollywood menu of vulgarity, violence and sex, "La Cena" manages to present in its less that 2 hours, a wide array of dramas in the course of a single dinner evening in a common restaurant. At each table the guests will be immersed in a particular drama (mother vs. daughter, old professor with young student lover, etc.) which are autonomous in themselves but that seem to be part of a larger script. That is achieved thanks to the masterful camera movement that weaves itself among the tables and connects all the independent dramas offering us an orchestrated picture of the restaurant's whole microcosm. Well worth seeing.

It's one of the best movies I have ever seen! Impressive! What can someone do with a small budget but with great imagination. The hole action is flowing naturally.

It was to be expected that most comments on this movie were of a congratulatory nature. What's not to like about a film that focuses on just one whole evening of people having dinner in a typical Italian restaurant, with typical Italian costumers with a typical Italian predilection for good food and wine, while eavesdropping on their typical Italian conversations? OK, I'm a bit too cynical here, I know. In fact, for people interested in Italian cultural peculiarities, this film is definitively worth watching. If you want to see a good and/or entertaining movie with interesting characters, a good plot or original directing, look elsewhere. Because the personality of all the characters is set and fixed from the start and nothing is done to add a twist in psychology or state of affairs of those involved, prepare for a long and tedious sit. Nearly every second somebody is talking, but not one conversation ever gets really interesting or funny. All in all, too much of the same.

Clearly it is an adaptation of Plato's The Symposium in which the Greek philosopher discusses about Love. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symposium_%28Plato_dialogue%29 Ettore Scola was great by transposing the Greeks' feasts to an Italian restaurant, simply great! Some people may be offended by gay directions, but it is Plato's position: the greatest love possible is between the master and his pupil. That explains the sweet erotic scene of the two guys at the end of the film. "The purpose of this was so that, when a man embraced a woman, he would cast his seed and they would have children; but when male embraced male, they would at least have the satisfaction of intercourse, after which they could stop embracing, return to their jobs, and look after their other needs in life." Symposium, 191c-d The film also shows other forms of Love like: mom and son, friends, man and woman... and all of them some problem shows up. And what really matters is to love rather than being loved.

Only 12 votes before mine? How could it be? Well, the movie is really one of the best I've ever seen. Scola directs his actors just like a great orchestra, keeping the action always in the same place, and following it almost in real time (I mean, 2 hours of movie to describe 2 hours in the life of the characters). So the film make you see an evening in the life of different people (with their stories, their problems, their loves), that have nothing in common one with each other but the place they're in, a restaurant. And all this is shown with a look that's funny and sad at the same time. A great construction of the director, supported by a gorgeous cast!