La pivellina

Contrary to what the synopsis says, when the abandoned child is found (and that happens in the first 5 minutes of the movie), no effort at all is made by the circus woman (or by anyone else) to find the child's mother. That's of course a wasted opportunity, because it would have made an interesting starting point. Instead, she and the others simply keep the child more or less as any parent would do, with the movie going nowhere for more than one hour and a half. The cute little child is funny at times (as are most children that aren't spoiled), but the film is utterly lacking in story, acting, directing and photography. There are a million ways to use 100 minutes of your free time, so I'd suggest you avoid this at all costs.

There are popular films for mainstream audiences which suit those with short attention span needs and there are the gems that inspire and engage the filmophile looking for character driven films with a quality of real life acting (usually foreign directors). This is a beautiful film. How these directors ever managed to shoot this film is beyond me. They captured the behavior of this little child so wonderfully. Its a real study of an intimate lifestyle somewhere in the outskirts of Rome during a typical winter, an emotional story of people on the margins of society and how they rescue and then bond with this little girl. Its a treasure of a film and your heart and soul will be uplifted by the story and the nature of the screenplay. The ending is really poignant. It won awards at Cannes and quite rightly so. Its hard to get it on DVD as the directors preferred to have it shown at festivals. Simply adorable. I cant think of any aspect that fails to engage the viewer.

A little girl is found in a park by a woman from a small circus in Italy. She and her family and friends try to take care of the child as best they can waiting for her mother to come for her. What I like most about this movie is how this group of people find a way to give her not only food and clothing but the love she needs. The end wasn't a surprise but leaves the audience guessing about what happened next. I very much enjoy foreign movies and am adding this one to my list.

A woman is out looking for her dog in a city park. She comes across a little girl in a pink snowsuit sitting in a swing all by herself. The story unfolds from there. If you like small, slow films that serve up a rich slice of life in an area you would otherwise never see, La Pivellina is well worth seeing. The characters who work in small circuses around Italy and their relationships with each other are interesting and believable. We grow to care more about them as the story and our time together unfolds. With no big bells or whistles, this film captured my full attention and left me still curious and wanting more.

I saw it at the Palm Springs Film Festival as a late choice among very few films with tickets still available. I'm glad I did.

Just saw it at the Copenhagen PIX film festival 2010, and really felt it was a good slice of social realism in the style of Belgian filmmakers Dardenne brothers, but the style applies for other earlier directors as well.

The actors and the dialog in the movie is what really lifts this movie as it could really have ended as a failed movie without believable characters to make the story unfold. The child playing Asia/Aia also acts really well with the other characters.

The story is very simple but it doesn't need to be more complicated than it is. The movie worked well for me as it didn't fall into the usual clichés towards the ending as many other similar movies would have done.