19/02/2025 - Paolo Genovese’s brilliant new comedy focuses on a first date between a man and a woman, and all the voices which live in their brains, caught between embarrassment and laughter

Having previously chalked up metaphysical and reflective dramas along the lines of The Place [+see also:
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film profile]. Much like that movie of 2016, which has been remade no less than 25 times around the world, everything happens over the course of a single evening in Madly, around a table laid for dinner in a comfortable Roman apartment. And this film, too, boasts a striking, stellar cast: ten of the most popular Italian actors lend their services to this brilliant comedy, which feels like a real-life version of the Oscar-winning animated movie Inside Out (although the director is at pains to point out that he first got the idea for characters inhabited by multiple voices back in 1999, when he was working with Luca Miniero on a well-known advert for RAI) and which has all the ingredients to become one of the biggest cinematic successes of the season, upon its release in Italian cinemas on 20 February via 01 Distribution.

What hides within our thoughts? Genovese (who also authored the subject and screenplay, the latter co-written by five pairs of hands including those of Isabella Aguilar, Lucia Calamaro, Paolo Costella and Flaminia Gressi) answers this question by focusing on a first date between a man and a woman: one of those moments in life when “our minds go haywire” and curiosity, desire and a determination to show the very best of ourselves collide with insecurities, expectations and the shadows we all carry within us. It’s an intimate setting: dinner at her house, good wine, soft lighting. But the minds of our two protagonists, Piero and Lara (Edoardo Leo and Pilar Fogliati), are crowded with voices. Piero’s is full of romantic Romeo (Maurizio Lastrico), seductive Eros (Claudio Santamaria), disillusioned Valium (Rocco Papaleo) and the voice of conscience and reason: the Professor (Marco Giallini). Lara’s brain, meanwhile, is divided between dreamer Giulietta (Vittoria Puccini), instinctive Trilli (Emanuela Fanelli), anarchic Scheggia (Maria Chiara Giannetta) and feminist and unyielding Alfa (Claudia Pandolfi).

But these disparate personalities don’t only have a voice, they also have bodies and a physical space (two different rooms, both full of objects, photographs and memories accumulated over a lifetime) where we see them endlessly arguing in order to get their point across and guide the decisions made by our two potential lovers, who, for their part, feign nonchalance but are tightly coiled springs, desperate not to make wrong moves. The dialogue is urgent and effective, the editing offered up by Consuelo Catucci (awarded a David di Donatello for his work on Angel of Evil in 2011) expertly stitches the three settings together (the dinner, her mind and his mind) with perfect comic timing, and the cast is in perfect harmony. It’s unclear whether Madly will replicate the success of Perfect Strangers (racking up more than 17 million admissions in Italy and the most remade film in world cinema history to date), but it’s easy to predict a positive response from the public for this pop-quality comedy, which is very easy to identify with and perfect for clearing our minds of thoughts.

Madly was produced by Lotus Production (Leone Film Group) together with RAI Cinema, in collaboration with Disney+ and in association with Vice Pictures. World sales are entrusted to RAI Cinema International Distribution.

(Translated from Italian)