Caos Calmo

The story is surely a good one and the actors all pretty good. The problem I had, and apparently it is a shared view, is that this movie has many unnecessary scenes and superficially shot details which make the result not quite as good as it could have been. A few examples? The first scene with the drowning women is just unbelievable (the sea seems totally calm, it is almost hilarious); the shots in Venice (the only reason I can see is that the film troupe wanted a little break there); the erotic scene between two not so young/not so beautiful actors (pity this scene wasn't between the gorgeous young girl and the brother of the main character, that might have been not necessary either, but at least enjoyable!) the cloying bits with the handicapped; the idealised and quite stereotypical depiction of the Roman school piazza as a nice and friendly environment; the beautiful young girl with the dog so interested in Moretti; even the end titles, with the pelouche monkey name listed... finally the music choice was quite cheesy. Anyway I would lie to say I was not entertained watching it. 6,5/10

Nanni Moretti is not playing his neurotic self this time but he is quite convincing as a man who can't deal with his emotions at all. The good thing about the movie is that all little story lines keep on spinning around him and seem to go nowhere in the end.

Just a few things put me off. I don't know if it was necessary to make the person a top manager. He doesn't seem the type to hold that sort of position. And the symbolism of the reversibility of palindromes is a bit cheesy and over the top.

But the thing that really put me down is that one sex scene. There is nothing wrong with it in itself but it does not fit in this movie at all. The whole atmosphere changes, it is as if the movie stops, the sex scene starts, and when it's over the movie starts again. Not convincing at all.

With sex and death, the two staples of literature, hulking mostly in the background, Caos Calmo deals mainly with parenting, by a single father no less, and the ties that connect concerned parents and their children. The result is a nuanced, always interesting film about human interactions in the semi-sane modern world. I mean it as a compliment when I say it is the sort of movie Jane Austen might have scripted had she survived to the ripe old age of 233. The film happens to be set in present-day Italy so there is a bit of local color for Italophiles, but it could have been set in any modern Western nation. Pietro, a successful businessman, confronts the sudden death of his wife as he seeks to ease the transition for his now motherless ten-year-old daughter. Apparently to show her he is fully there for her, he abandons his office and waits for his daughter in the piazza outside her school each school day. Tutto il mondo comes to that piazza -- gossiping mothers, a developmentally challenged boy, Pietro's hot sister-in-law on the verge of a nervous breakdown, his secretary with papers to sign, his colleagues from the office stewing over the progress of merger negotiations and what it means to them, a young beauty with a big dog who needs a hug (the beauty, I mean), even Roman Polanski in a cameo appearance. Over the course of the picture Pietro convincingly works through his feelings about marriage, loss, grief, friendship, family, and desire. The emotional center of Caos Calmo is like a toned down, more serious sitcom, like Seinfeld on downers. As in life, there are small mysteries unsolved, but no scene -- surely not the much-discussed nighttime scene that serves to affirm life -- is out of place. The film works. Enjoy it.

Can't understand all the fuss about this movie. Yes, the photography is beautiful, but that's about all. Nanni Moretti is very good at playing himself, as usual, no matter what's the name or the role he is given. It's been said that's a movie about the absence of grief: but even to that effect the sense of grief should be somehow, somewhere implied, which it is not in the least. The ending is there just because the movie had to be ended, but it could have happened like that at any point. There is no change or development. Seemingly adult people talk as if they were permanently immature teenagers and a little girl comes out with a typically adult comment on her pairs. Comments upon life, society, corporations, etc., are a sequel of common places typical of talk shows. Would be dramatic sequences seem picked out from fashionable advertising clips and have the same emotional impact. The overrated and over-discussed torrid sex scene is just a softer imitation of hard core platitudes. No doubt there was matter for drama, but apparently the author didn't know how to deal with it: may very well be that, under this viewpoint, the script has been quite truthful to the Veronesi's novel it's been based on.

Those Europeans sure know how to make irresistible movies out of the most unlikely topics, no? This one concerns the choice made by the widower of a young woman who's just died to sit outside his daughter's school every day to wait for her, rather than go to work. What starts off as an odd way to come to terms with his grief, quickly transforms into an emotional journey for him, and his family.

He starts appreciating the simple things in life more, and makes a lot of new friends that he otherwise may not have met. It also turns him into a bit of a minor celebrity... as folks flock to see 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved'. Who'd have known that Script song may be based on a real character?!

It's brilliantly acted, with truly heartfelt moments studded throughout. You become wrapped up in the lead's quest to find some kind of personal closure, and the lives of the other participants are almost equally as fascinating. Could us Brits build such a towering edifice with such small bricks? Alas, I don't think so. But... what's to stop us trying? 8/10