Noi e la Giulia

Beautiful film that tells in a light and funny way all the vicissitudes of opening something to the south and thanks to all the very stereotyped characters it manages to tell a wonderful and at the same time very sad story.

Noi e la Giulia is not what you'd call a masterpiece, nor what you'd call a very good movie, actually. Indeed, in order to analyze what is good in this movie you have to contextualize it in its real environment, which is the Italian comedy. And recently the Italian comedy has gone real bad. That's why I think it is possible to give some credit to the filmmakers which believe in projects like Noi e la Giulia.

As a matter of fact, the movie provides occasion for some real laugh. Talking about the screenplay, there are lines which are good and lines which are extremely banal, but both made the audience laugh, and I guess this is what a comedy aims to. Also, you would expect a poor direction by Edoardo Leo, which is both on its very first steps and such a good-looking fellow that a prejudiced would think he would never made it to a good direction (not me obviously), but all in all it could have been worst, and it's supported by an interesting photography.

I like to see this title more as a starting point than as an arrival, and moreover I think I'd like to see more movies like this in the Italian cinema and less like the ones of Christian De Sica.

Noi e la Giulia is first and foremost a comedy film, one that harks back to a rather more innocent age of Italian comedy, but it also has something to say about the present day, the kind of lives we lead and the difficulties those of an in-between age face.

Four men around the age of forty have looked at their lives and decided that they are pretty much failures. When his father dies, Diego - an unambitious and timid car salesman feels that he has been a disappointment to the old man, and decides to finally follow through on his long term ambition to buy some property in the country for a business venture. Two other men however have reached the same conclusion and have arrived to look at the property at the same time; Fausto (director Eduardo Leo), a fascist-leaning shopping channel watch salesman with mounting debts; and Claudio, who has run his family grocery business into the ground and lost his wife in the process.

The asking price for the farmhouse comes in far above their budget and it also needs a lot of work, so they agree to go into a joint venture, splitting the business three ways in the hope of establishing a hotel/restaurant getaway in the country. They are still not well equipped for the challenges they face in getting this venture off the ground however until Sergio turns up. His disappointment in life is the failure of Communism, but as he is owed money by Fausto, he demands a share in the business instead. He also proves to be a handy man in another way, when a camorrista turns up and demands protection money even before they are ready for their first customers.

Locking Vito up in the cellar until they can make a profit and sell-up doesn't seem to be the greatest idea ever, particularly when other mafia come looking for him, making further demands for money. Their method of hiding Vito's car - the Giulia of the title - by burying it in a hole that was dug for the pool, also proves to be a bit of a mistake as the car's dodgy stereo occasionally blares out pieces of classical music from underground. This however becomes something of a tourist attraction, a natural curiousity with a supernatural story attached to it that eventually draws in the clients.

It's very much a character comedy with standard types of losers making good, and the film is at least well rounded in that respect, with not only the four main men but Vito, the mobsters, Elisa their cleaner, and Abu a Ghanan immigrant, each with their own issues to resolve and all contributing to the colourful comic situations. The comedy of fools running up against the camorra makes it sound like I Soliti Ignoti meets Gomorrah, but it's a lot more light-hearted and innocent than that - more like Smetto Quando Voglio meets The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Actor/director Eduardo Leo handles the tone well, the comedy inoffensive, a little bit silly, but often quite amusing.

I liked this film. I thought it was both funny and inspiring.

It is slightly in the past in terms of a couple of clichés, but to me this was enjoyable and felt more honest even. Aside from that, the plot is very original and the film is full of other fresh ideas.

I wanted to smile throughout the film. It was not roll on the floor laughing funny, but had a feel-good wit throughout and a crisp sense of humour.

I think it inspired a certain perspective without trying too hard which is a tough balance. Noi e la Giulia was slow enough to be laidback and unpretentious, but at the same time not boring at any point. There was always something happening and something to look forward to.

8 stars (because there is no 7.5)

Love from Egypt.