Che ora è

I don't know what paradise looks like except: there surely will be a cinema in it, and "Che ora è" will be playing on a giant screen, in original Italian, I will be able to speak Italian and manage to sneak in for free because the beautiful box office girl fancies me.

But mainly there will be "Che ora è?" playing.

More than a film, this movie is a sort of long theatrical dialogue. The two protagonists practically monopolize all the scenes and there are very few supporting actors. Mastroianni and Troisi positively impressed me. Certainly, they were two great actors, but together they represented an unknown. And yet the movie works. Perhaps because they were so distant from each other, they also well represented the distance that can exist between father and son. The movie is all about this: a long (non) dialogue between them, about life, death, family, and human relationships in general. In short, a beautiful movie, to which I want to give a very high rating. I have included it among those that I have appreciated the most. I also want to give credit to the director Ettore Scola, because the risk of "monotony" was very high. And yet, I was not bored at all.

Mastroianni and Troisi show in this movie what it means to be a honest actor. They act in the Italy of the late 80s. The feelings of modernity mix with the memories of the past. Mastroianni is a father who doesn't know his son for who he truly is. This makes him suffer, nonetheless Scola sends the message that it is never to late to sort out some sort of compromise between a father and son who love each other. Troisi on his part represents a character who lives life without all the fuss buzzing the 'successful' life. In those days as well as today a really difficult thing to do. The simplicity and cleanliness with which they share their feelings as characters is really fulfilling. This movie is a gift they made to us and both actors and director delivered a truly minimalist piece of art. Thank you!!!!

Massimo Troisi is known abroad mostly for "Il Postino" and in Italy is remembered especially for his first comedy films but also the ones who appreciate him have never seen this movie and that's a shame 'cause here we see one of the best Troisi's performances where we can enjoy his talent as a dramatic actor not "just a comedian" (expression used by some, but we cinephiles know that real comedians are the best actors ever, just to name another Neapolitan like Troisi: Totò). For the third time Massimo doesn't work as a writer or director as in all his previous films - the first was in "Hotel Colonial" by Cinzia Th. Torrini then "Splendor" always by Ettore Scola (there will be another last one from this "trilogy" Scola-Troisi, "Captain Fracassa's Journey"). Then there is Marcello Mastroianni, just one of the greatest Italian actors of all time. This film an intimist trip of something never too much analyzed in the world of the seventh art: the father-son relationship. Here, as in the real world, upside down sometimes, quarrels and conflicts of two generations, everyone can identify itself in the two figures, one or the other during the viewing. Marcello and Massimo seem so natural like a real father and son. They received together "Volpi Cup for Best Actor" and Troisi also a "Pasinetti Award for Best Actor" at Venice Film Festival. No need for other actors, just a few, the right frame of this wonderful portrait. Grazie Ettore Scola.

"Che ora è?" is a great minimalist movie, since it makes you feel the love, and in the same time the disease between a father and a son through simple attitudes, and words ("what time is it?"!!). And such feelings can make you suffer - but a little bit, but in a light way - since they are true. Marcello Mastroianni and Massimo Troisi are so perfect playing their parts, that you may believe Marcello to be your father and Massimo to be your son. It's a shame this is not one of the most famous movies by Ettore Scola, also in Italy.