C'eravamo tanto amati

"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.

This is a beautiful film about friendship and nostalgia, but above all about loving cinema. To me, this film defines "cinephilia". Cinema and the protagonists' lives are cleverly interwoven. The fleeting images of film, capturing a moment and then disappearing, only to linger in the memory, can be seen as a metaphor for the past that can not be recaptured, a past when we were young and happy and confident and the world was ours. When the credits roll, I feel this strange mixture of happiness and sadness. Oh, how I wish...

Produced in 1974, 'C'eravamo tanto amati' (The English title is 'We All Loved Each Other So Much') was for Ettore Scola his first highly successful film, that also brought him international recognition. Many remarkable movies were to follow, but this bittersweet saga of Italy's first 30 years after World War II remains one of his best films. Scola can be considered the last of the great directors of the glory period of Italian cinema, although he was decades younger than De Sica, Visconti or Rossellini, and about ten years younger than Fellini and Pasolini. Through the epic force, the political commitment and the perfect mastery of the means of cinematic expression, and also because of the explicit homage paid to the masters and colleagues De Sica and Fellini, 'C'eravamo tanto amati' can be looked at as a beautiful period finale. At the same time its Italian comedy style makes this film a light (in the good sense of the word) and enjoyable cinematic experience.

The action of the film begins in 1944, when three friends, three heroes in the cinematic sense but also in their real life, descend victorious from the mountains in which they had fought as partisans against the fascists. Their paths in life are separated, but they will intersect several times and the film captures precisely these encounters spread in time over the next three decades. Giani (Vittorio Gassman) becomes a lawyer and defender in some not very clean cases, makes a convenient marriage that enriches him and becomes a building magnate. Antonio (Nino Manfredi), a left-wing intellectual and a passionate of cinema, refuses to compromise, leaves his wife and son as well as teaching in a small provincial town to become a film journalist in Rome. Antonio (Stefano Satta Flores) is a paramedic in the hospital and leads a modest existence illuminated only by the love for the beautiful actress Luciana (Stefania Sandrelli) that in fact all three men will fall in love with at one time or another in the story. So we are dealing with a capitalist, an intellectual and a proletarian, plus a muse. The fates of the four and their encounters are traced over thirty years, with their meanders and conflicts, and with their intersections with the history of Italian film that lives at the same time its golden age (Frederico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica, Marcelo Mastroianni contribute with cameo appearances in the film).

Half of 'C'eravamo tanto amati' is filmed in black and white and the other half in color in parallel with the film transition that took place in the history of the film during the story. The acting interpretations are all remarkable. To the quartet of heroes I mentioned I would add the character of Gianni's father-in-law played by Aldo Fabrizi, a formidable role of composition. The accessible Italian-style comedy style makes the film enjoyable to watch, while the insertions of elements borrowed from theatre (the heroes addressing the audience as if from the stage) or from the 'cinematic kitchen' (repeated takes or stop-frames) make watching the film interesting for more experimental cinema enthusiasts as well. Ettore Scola was one of the directors who knew how to combine inventiveness, accessibility and narrative talent. The disappointment of the heroes is that of a generation that not only dreamed of a better world but also fought for it, but for which the hour of balance is also the hour of disappointment. A story that seems to repeat itself generation after generation.

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.

I saw this film as a 20 year old when it just came out in the 70ies and I was fascinated by its vision, humor and tragedy. Now I saw it again, more than 25 years later. Living so to speak at the other end of the plot (the story begins when the four protagonists are around 20 and it ends in their late 40ies) it does not look worn out a bit. The way life constructs and destroys friendship has not been mirrored more intensely in any other film I've ever seen.