Tag Archive: Valerio Mastandrea


The Place: The devil is in the details

Filed under: Italy, Movies, Television — Leave a comment
November 19, 2017

THE PLACE directed by Paolo Genovese (Italy, 2017)

theplaceAt the time of writing, The Place is the most popular movie in Italy outperfoming blockbusters like Thor Ragnarok and Justice League.

In terms of budget, plot and special effects it couldn’t be further from these Marvel spin-offs. The whole movie consists of dialogues in a single location, a bar in Rome which appears never to close or else allows customers to remain for 24 hours a day.

Instead of of rip-roaring action we are drawn into the set of stories that subtly overlap and gradually reveal common threads. Continue reading →

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GLI EQUILIBRISTI : A LIFE OUT OF BALANCE

Filed under: Gender, Italy, Parenting — 1 Comment
September 18, 2012

GLI EQUILIBRISTI directed by Ivano De Matteo (Italy, 2012)

Gli EquilibristiThis movie was recently presented at Venice Film Festival and is an honest, compassionate and mildly depressing portrait of a man on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

The American Heritage dictionary defines an ‘equilibrist’ as “a person who performs feats of balance, such as tightrope walking”.

The movie title gives the plural form but there is really only one man (Giulio) walking the line. He is the 40-year-old husband who cheats on his wife although he is no serial philanderer.

So far as we know, he is guilty of just one lapse – a quick screw in the filing room at the local government offices where he works. For this moment of weakness, he pays dearly, both financially and psychologically.

His wife discovers incriminating text messages on his mobile phone and is in no mood to forgive and forget despite that fact that he a loving father to their two children. His daughter is a teenage punkette while his son is an angelic pre-teen. Continue reading →

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