Solino, une vie nouvelle

Akin deals with two of his favorite themes here; the experience of the immigrant outsider, and food. Both run through his later films, but even here are approached with energy and humanity.

The story of an Italian family that moves to Germany to in the hopes of getting better work, the film spans 20 years. The first act takes place in 1964, as the family makes the move and the 2 brothers who are the children try to adjust. Jump forward 10 years to 1974 and the film moves from sweet light sentiment to something a little darker and more complex, as the brothers are now young adults, pulling away from the family, and grappling with what they want out of life and the tensions caused by their naturally different temperaments.

While not at the level of his later amazing works like "Head-On" and "The Edge of Heaven", this is an entertaining and very human movie that manages to be a portrait of a struggling family, that's neither horribly depressing, or sticky sweet and cute.

It's very frustrating, but there seems to be no officially released DVD with English subtitles.

Turko-German directing star "Fatih Akin" proffers the tale of a family of Italian immigrants in Germany. "Solino" is the movie that immediately preceded his breakthrough "Gegen die Wand".

A young couple and their two sons move from the Italian village of Solino to Germany, where they are, overall, pretty successful as restauranteurs. But in time divisions become apparent: the father can't handle his success and exploits his wife and sons. The brothers fight over women; when one of them becomes successful as a movie director, the other brother can't handle his own jealousy. When the mother falls deadly ill, the filmmaker gives up his career and moves back with her to Italy, where he finds true love.

The movie is watchable, but overall I couldn't warm to it. The plot is often meandering and full of clichés. I didn't like seeing German actors portraying Italians who speak German throughout -- that simply couldn't fly. I didn't buy the bit about the one brother being a film-making boy wonder -- the movies we get to see by him are bo-ring. I didn't buy the Jules-et-Jim-like love affair between Gigi, Giancarlo and Jo -- she comes across as little more than a blonde slag. I really hated the stereotype about the simple country girl waiting for her childhood love to come back from Germany "to bring her snow". I thought the story about the kindly photo shop owner was naff.

That's not enough for me to either hate or love this movie. The only thing that stands out to me is the impressive performance of the actress portraying the mother, Antonella Attili.

NB: I have to write the director's name in parentheses, otherwise IMDb will bowdlerise his first name to "faith".

This hadn't too good a prognosis from me due to certain factors, but I was pleasantly surprised I ended up enjoying the film very much. It's engrossing as anything and very interesting - not only because of the secondary subject matter of film. And yes, it looks sharp.

The cast is good all around. Even the children succeed perfectly in the only thing I expect from them: they aren't irritating. I'd go as far as saying that some of them are, uh, great. The distinctive-faced Vincent Schiavelli draws a nice picture of a film director.

I just found myself searching for Akin's other films. It seems this (the one not scripted by him) is actually the weakest thereof! I look forward to seeing his others, but only for this one I vouch, as of now.

Oh dear. Now I'm finished and haven't even said anything.

Well, this in an outrageous flick. I saw it the other day with my girl friend, and both of us were/are very impressed by this movie. The first half, when they just arrive in Germany is very great told.

The young boys play their roles very good, especially the young gigi. He is great! My eyes were wet all the time, its so much feeling that is transmitted through the silver screen. And the music makes this flick perfect. it always supports the unique scenes. Well, i just have to say, GO FOR IT! By the way, Akin is a great director. 9/10

This film plays in the 60s and is about an Italian family: Romano, his wife Rosa and their two children Gigi and Giancarlo emigrate from Solino in Italy to Duisburg in the Ruhr area. I like this film, because I think it is quite realistic: it shows problems which many foreign families have when they come to another country: they have to get used to a new culture, a new environment and this can be difficult: especially if you don't know the language.... It is difficult for the family but they find a way: they open a restaurant which offers typical Italian food, and it is named "Solino", like their hometown. The film also shows different conflicts - Gigi and Giancarlo fall in love with the same girl, and although Rosa has to work very hard, Romano refuses to pay money to engage more workers, etc. etc. But stop, I don't want to tell you how it goes on. You should watch the film yourself, it's a nice one - I have also made a Referat about it and examined scenes which show different cultural attitudes. And there are a few...