Journal intime

I came across this little gem in the bargain bin at my video store and was delightfully surprised. It is a free form film, divided into three parts which are pretty much like the diary entries alluded to in the title -- personal stories and reflections by writer/director Nanni Moretti, playing himself as a loner and narrating the film, sometimes in voice-over, sometimes on-screen (the other characters are oblivious to his narration). The film has an ironic wit and a casual style that is refreshing to watch. In the first segment, he just drives around Rome on his Vespa, admiring housing projects, spouting admiration for Jennifer Beale, and searching for the spot where Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered. In one hilarious scene, he takes time out from his ride to berate a movie critic for giving a favorable review to "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer." In the second segment, Moretti goes hopping around the Italian Islands (spectacularly filmed) and tries in vain to get some writing done. On one island, all of the families have just one child, who willfully dominates the parents. In the third segment, Moretti recounts in almost documentary style the true story of his search for a cure for his baffling skin condition, which causes unbearable itching. His many visits to dermatologists and pharmacies are presented in excruciating detail but not without an air of wry detachment. Moretti's closing take is memorable. If you watch this film on its own terms, it's a wonderful viewing experience.

Interesting look on life, funny and sad. Not a movie for the action-seekers or the shallow. Movie follows main character (autobiography) on his wanderings through Rome and the Liparian Islands. Very nice camerawork. Simple but effective.

I had to purchase this film after seeing it once late at night on a cable channel many years ago. Although the director can come off as an effete intellectual, his focus is on the Italian culture as it has changed over the past 30 years. As a passive observer of Roman lifestyles, this film is better appreciated when you have some first hand experience living in Rome - since the director's point of view seems to come directly from this city. In a certain way, Caro Dario is the intellectual version or sequel to Fellini's Roma. Instead of satirizing low brow Roman lifestyles, Caro Dario spoofs the pretentious intellectuals (like his traveling comrade who finally breaks down and admits he is a soap opera addict) and the couples who have read various philosophical and historical works to their only son every night to help him go to sleep. As the parents are rattling off the list of philosophers and historians "... we have read Hegel, Wittgenstein, Herodotus, read and re-read Cicero", they hesitate for a moment not recalling one of the authors and the son chimes in "Tacitus!". It was funny just appreciating the stark contrast of the family's existence and lifestyle as compared to the principles and content of what they had been reading to their son.

I call it a relaxing comedy because it depends on vignettes for comedy and then intersperses great scenery and music in between. The comedic moments are just pointed enough to keep the film interesting, e.g., the very precise translation of "mezzo scemo" by Jennifer Beals; the island of misfit parents whose children reign; and the inside view of Roman medical care. Now all that's needed is a prequel to Roman culture. We have seen the Rome of the 1930s through the 1970s in Fellini's "Roma". Caro Dario takes us from the 1960s to the 1990s. Perhaps a good satire on the culture at the time Verdi through to World War I.

Good visuals, music, and weird but fun way of story telling. Total vibes from this film. The main character is very interesting. The story in 3 parts, amd take of the actor as the story goes on, is nice. Gives a funny thing to the story. The landscape, buildings, vespa travel, islands, volcano, ships make a tonal shift from one story to other. Differemt characters and their quirks, some tolerable and some outright leads to withdrawing immediately. The same problem with wrongly diagonising. How many lives will we lose. To have heart to go through it again for showing yoir life, is a brave thing to do. Huge respect. Stay at home and turn on this film, you will enjoy it.

Yes it is cute and Woody Allenish but there is something more. It is a movie about an ordinary man, who enjoys doing quiet things by himself such as riding around Rome on his Vespa and walking by himself, he is not a hero he's anyone. The music is really good and I managed to find it all on Napster and other sources. Notice some themes such as the Soccer(football) nets (goals) and the scene where he watches the nun on tv, that same scene is in Cinema Paradiso! I like World music so the scene of the band playing for the dancers is great-who is that group...what is the song? I didn't like the interposed parts showing Henri the serial killer or the Italian movie and I thought the last story was a bit boring- notice on the scene where he is looking for Passolini's murder spot how he just doubles back on himself.

I could go on talking about this film and it comes in as one of my five best Cinema Paradiso, Unbearable Lightness of Being, Manhattan, and The Year of Living Dangerously.