The history of this movie reads like a fairytale. First it would only be made for TV, then someone decided to give it a release on the festival circuit. It won Un certain regard at Cannes and among others an audience award over here in Rotterdam. The many audience awards suggest it is well suited for the larger public. And it is not difficult to see why: It has a simple story where everybody can relate to. It sets some atmosphere from that time. The 60s and 70s generations can easily identify themselves with this and it will bring back some nostalgia from their youth.
The viewer walks through the last forty years of Italian history in a way that is reminiscent of Forrest Gump: The characters are exactly placed where the historic action is happening. The main characters meet and separate at several points in order to accomplish this. So we go from the abuse of psychiatric patients, to the flooding of Florence, the Turin student protests, Fiat lay-offs, Sicilian mafia, Red Brigades, tackling corruption, murder of Sicilian judges. One of the interesting aspects is that in the beginning the brothers cross characters: Nicola is pragmatic at first but becomes more idealistic, his brother Matteo more of a romantic figure (he studies literature) becoming a harsher character.
I saw part 1 and was disappointed. Although it started very intriguing by carrying the TV out of the home, it's in this phase basically a TV movie with a very distant and detached style. The story doesn't need that many hours, so we get some slow and uninteresting scenes in between due to the desired TV-format. To that point this only confirmed for me that TV is a boring medium far inferior to cinema. But I went in for part 2 and that was an excellent idea. Not for the first hour, basically a continuation of part 1. But then something in the movie changed from the suicide onwards. It served also as a suicide for the style of the movie until that point. And this was no longer the historic epic because little of world importance happened in Italy the last 15 years. So the story changes focus, and reaches territory Italian cinema is far more experienced in: conveying emotions around family relations. Everything gets better from that point: acting, cinematography, direction, editing.
It delivers emotional punch after punch and you must be almost cold-hearted not to be touched by them. You can feel the scars history left behind on Giulia. The two wonderful scenes with Adriana and books: first she throws her son's books away, and then she has a breakdown in the classroom. The way the beauty of Sicily is brought to the screen; Adriana remaining with her grandson Andrea and Mirella in Sicily. A house is built, a family is built. The story and family circle closes with the return to Norway by Andrea. Still one redundant scene: Matteo's approval of the relationship of his brother.
If you ever want to see a TV movie, let it be this one. And in conjunction I also recommend Scola's La Famiglia.
The viewer walks through the last forty years of Italian history in a way that is reminiscent of Forrest Gump: The characters are exactly placed where the historic action is happening. The main characters meet and separate at several points in order to accomplish this. So we go from the abuse of psychiatric patients, to the flooding of Florence, the Turin student protests, Fiat lay-offs, Sicilian mafia, Red Brigades, tackling corruption, murder of Sicilian judges. One of the interesting aspects is that in the beginning the brothers cross characters: Nicola is pragmatic at first but becomes more idealistic, his brother Matteo more of a romantic figure (he studies literature) becoming a harsher character.
I saw part 1 and was disappointed. Although it started very intriguing by carrying the TV out of the home, it's in this phase basically a TV movie with a very distant and detached style. The story doesn't need that many hours, so we get some slow and uninteresting scenes in between due to the desired TV-format. To that point this only confirmed for me that TV is a boring medium far inferior to cinema. But I went in for part 2 and that was an excellent idea. Not for the first hour, basically a continuation of part 1. But then something in the movie changed from the suicide onwards. It served also as a suicide for the style of the movie until that point. And this was no longer the historic epic because little of world importance happened in Italy the last 15 years. So the story changes focus, and reaches territory Italian cinema is far more experienced in: conveying emotions around family relations. Everything gets better from that point: acting, cinematography, direction, editing.
It delivers emotional punch after punch and you must be almost cold-hearted not to be touched by them. You can feel the scars history left behind on Giulia. The two wonderful scenes with Adriana and books: first she throws her son's books away, and then she has a breakdown in the classroom. The way the beauty of Sicily is brought to the screen; Adriana remaining with her grandson Andrea and Mirella in Sicily. A house is built, a family is built. The story and family circle closes with the return to Norway by Andrea. Still one redundant scene: Matteo's approval of the relationship of his brother.
If you ever want to see a TV movie, let it be this one. And in conjunction I also recommend Scola's La Famiglia.