La prima cosa bella

Most people agree that the Golden Age of Italian movies started with Rosselini's "Rome-Open City" and ended about 15 years before Mastroianni's death. What's the cause of that, we can't be sure of.

This film about the drug depending teacher, who remembers his mother during the last decade of that era and how she involuntarily destroyed the lives of him and his sister. They really haven't begun yet. His mother another example of the common Italian film theme "Too beautiful for her own good".

But that theme would have been done better in the hands of the golden Italian directors and good acting really don't make that much difference here.

This was a beautiful emotional movie. I really liked the actors in this movie because it seemed like they had a good chemistry on and off screen - for some reason I just had that feeling about it. The movie was emotional to me obviously because of the storyline and death, or the idea of death and having to watch your family member(s) slowly slip away from you, whether death or just estranged. However, I would absolutely recommend this film because it is the type of film that is relatable to anyone who doesn't have a perfect family nor a perfect life... in that case, EVERYONE. If a film HAS to be sad, I also like a film that can make me laugh, too, and this one did just that. It was a good balance to where the film isn't depressing, no fun in that. 10/10 would recommend it to a friend.

I could not even finish to watch the entire movie. From the first moments I had the feeling of something already seen so many other times: the usual boring italian comedy where I know how the movie goes and which image of Italy wants to give, as if time had never passed since 1950.

Paolo Virzi, the last heir of Italian comedy recounts the resentment of a child for a mother too generous, the ambitions of a great little woman in Italy in the sixties, the Italian province full of prejudices, the disease as an instrument of reconciliation. Between past and present, helped by a splendid cast including Stefania Sandrelli (muse of Pietro Germi and Bernardo Bertolucci, Ettore Scola return in a leading role with all his talent as an actress animal). Paolo Virzi signs his best movie, a film that makes you cry and laugh at the same time, a film that remains in the heart... Paolo Virzi, the last heir of Italian comedy recounts the resentment of a child for a mother too generous, the ambitions of a great little woman in Italy in the sixties, the Italian province full of prejudices, the disease as an instrument of reconciliation. Between past and present, helped by a splendid cast including Stefania Sandrelli (muse of Pietro Germi and Bernardo Bertolucci, Ettore Scola return in a leading role with all his talent as an actress animal). Paolo Virzi signs his best movie, a film that makes you cry and laugh at the same time, a film that remains in the heart...

Told in flashbacks, this is the story of Anna, young mother of two, who in the Seventies gets thrown out by her jealous husband after winning a beauty competition for the most beautiful mother and must carve a life for herself and her children, even if she has no skills or instruction and only her attractiveness to sell.

In her own way, Anna is a good mother, but both Bruno and Valeria, her boy and girl will suffer some consequences of their unconventional upbringing.

I found the flashbacks very relatable since I am Italian and I grew up in that time frame. Therefore it felt like a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

The part in the present is less convincing and I did not like at all Mastrandrea's interpretation of the grown up Bruno. Sandrelli as the older Anna is good and her story line quite moving.

I rated the movie quite high for my own sentimental reasons, although the present day part of the history could have been done better and the plot is slightly overlong.