Leçons d'amour à l'italienne

A delightful movie about the many aspects of love. The director knows comedy, doesn't talk down to his audience, and together with the screenwriter, delivers some insightful and hilarious moments. I found the movie dragged, or rather annoyed, only during one short stretch. But that was more than offset by the incredibly funny and talented Carlo Vendone as the physician in the final segment. I, and the entire full house of the audience at the St. Louis International Film Festival, was with this film every entertaining step of the way. The entire cast delivers believable performances, in a film that moves at a happy, involving pace. Laughter is contagious... see it with a group.

Saw this film during a class, it's surprise to see Carlo Verdone and Silvio Muccino again, last time I saw them together in "Il Mio Miglior Nemico" (2006), so I guess both are marquee actors in Italy (actually Carlo Verdone is a director too and the cast includes a dozen of the most famous Italian contemporary actors/actresses).

Actually I heard of this series before, the "Manuela D' Amore 2" also has become a huge success in Italy (with Monica Bellucci, a current sexy symbol of Italy), and rumor says the 3rd installment will invite Robert De Niro to join a star-studded cast, which shows its ambition to conquer a more international terrain.

The film has been a successful domestic box-office bomb in 2005 and also met with mainly positive feedbacks. It consists of four stories of love, from "falling in love", "the crisis", "the betrayal" to "the abandoned", four different sets of protagonists interpret their own chapter with a previous one educes a latter story and finally the fourth chapter encircles with the first one to make everything looks so perfect.

It is an innocuous comedic film with predictable farce and generally it is quite enjoyable. Although each chapter seems nothing particularly outstanding (when we talk about love, I think we have already seen ALMOST everything on screen), the advantage is that with four different stories altogether and each lasts for only 30 mins, the film shrewdly changes to a new chapter as soon as the previous one shows a sign of burning out, which at least will not annoy the audience (critics are not included).

The film got 10 nomination of David di Donatell Awards (Italian Oscar) and won several of them (including Best Supporting Actor and Actress, Carlo Verdone and Margherita Buy), which cruelly shows the truth that now we are in a world starving for great comedies, it is not only in Italy, but the whole earth as well.

This is a fine Italian comedy that I would recommend to anyone. The movie is about the several steps of love relationships: falling in love, crisis, infidelity, parting. Each of these four steps is represented by a couple: Muccino-Trinca fall in love, Rubino-Buy are on the verge of disaster, Abbrescia is unfaithful to Littizzetto (and vice versa), while Verdone is mad about losing his woman (but will finally fall in love with another one, thus closing the circle).

The feature is structured in almost separate episodes, which is a reference to many "commedie all'italiana" of the '60s. Nevertheless the stories are ingenuously linked among each other and the writing is so skillful that the movie never loses its pace. Plus, it is very well acted. Verdone and Buy are almost perfect, and so is Littizzetto. (This actress became famous thanks to TV shows, but is actually very good and definitely deserves to play a dramatic role to show how credible she is and how versatile).

Verdone proves brave by accepting a character both ridiculous and tragic. He is a physician who has been abandoned by his wife and tries to re-build his life out of its pieces. Maybe the script is a bit excessive here, as it is not clear whether we have to laugh at or identify with him. Anyway he redeems himself in a beautiful ending almost reminding of "La dolce vita"'s.

The episode that I liked the least is the first. It avoids most of the stupid clichés of Italian comedies for teenagers, but why then all those swearwords? They are just annoying and don't add anything to the story and the characters. Plus, the episode is kind of unrealistic.

Obviously, this is not a revolutionary movie, but it is very funny and, most of all, not spoiled by silly character parts as so many Italian movies are.

Considering that Italian comedy is kind of limited to 2 or 3 movies during the Christmas holidays,and that some of them are quite good (the ones with Leonardo Pieraccioni and Aldo,Giovanni & Giacomo)and some aren't (the Boldi & De Sica-movies),Manuale d'Amore was a bit of a surprise: released in March 2005,with a quite unknown director(Giovanni Veronesi,better known as a screenwriter,who was also behind Che Ne Sarà di Noi),a famous cast although only two actors were professional comedians (Carlo Verdone and Luciana Littizzetto),and a 4 episode-plot,reminiscent of classic Italian comedies,as well as Verdone's early films.

The story is simple but interesting,as it shows 4 different phases of love: 1.Tommaso (Silvio Muccino) falls desperately in love with Giulia (Jasmine Trinca)and spends the rest of the episode trying to get her; 2.Marco (Sergio Rubini) and Barbara (Margherita Buy) are a married couple in the middle of a crisis,and the whole situation is made funnier by the fact that the two actors were married in real life; 3.Ornella (Luciana Littizzetto) finds out that her husband is unfaithful and swears revenge; 4.Goffredo (Carlo Verdone)is suddenly left by his wife and tries to go on with his life,which won't be easy.

Veronesi tells the story in a very classic way (there are even characters commenting the events straight to camera),without using too much bad language (typical of the mediocre Christmas comedies)or any scenes of graphic nudity.

The cast is excellent: Muccino is one step closer to the stardom he deserves,Trinca,Buy and Rubini should do more comedies,while Littizzetto should do more movies. The real surprise,however,is Verdone,whose mature portrayal of an abandoned husband is miles away from his early,sketch-originated characters.His episode is a perfect mix of comedy and drama,and he deserved every bit of the David di Donatello he won for his performance(Best Actor in a Supporting Role).

So,if you want to watch a good Italian comedy,Manuale d'Amore is recommended.

Another one of those surprising little masterpieces that one sees accidentally; a movie that you know little about but once seen leaves you with warmth and satisfaction having been taken on a journey we all know.

Diane and I loved the film and left the theater with smiles on our faces and happy satisfaction animating our post-movie conversation. Maybe this pleasantness was a result of the writer's/director's choice of vignettes that ended the movie-it was the happiest, most satisfying of the four stories that composed the film.

The script was subtly formed so that the stories have a soft connection between them and the final story felt the most satisfying to me. These four faces of love are examined softly-no major drama here-just a quiet look at the most obvious faces that present to us of this feeling called love.

It is easy to see why this film won 11 Italian Oscars because the acting is acting at the point where the viewer is unaware that the people are acting the story. These theme variations are so well crafted that the viewer is left feeling that he/she is an emotional voyeur in that they are present during these stages of love.

Do make an effort to see the film-it is worth your time and effort to do so.