The story of a voting day in Italy, meaning the stories of three different men who travel to get to their right place of voting (since of course you can’t vote wherever you are but you must go to the place that has your name written down, your town of residence even if you’re not living there now).
It’s a funny movie, to appreciate the most famous characters portrayed by actor and director Verdone, but it’s never been clear to me why he ended the movie with a death… to bring us to reality, maybe, and to remind us that amidst all the comedy there is also much serious satire… maybe.
- Pasquale lives in Monaco, Germany now, and comes back to Italy to vote, but as soon as he’s inside our borders things start going badly for him, bringing it home for him how really different this place is - and not in a good way.
- Furio is totally satisfied with his life, and with the way he himself is, and sees nothing wrong with his behaviour at all. He is so maniacally precise to the point of madness, and his wife is there already, poor woman.
- Mimmo is a kid in a grown-up’s body, more or less. He goes up north to collect his grandmother and drive her all the way back so she can vote.
So:
Pasquale lives with his German girlfriend who doesn’t seem to mind that he never speaks but likes to whistle a lot. He drives to Matera to vote.
He stops just inside our borders to drink something, and it’s enough time for someone to steal his radio.
He stops the car for some hitchhikers, but they’re quite choosey, and after a look inside they change their mind.
He stops for a sandwich but eats a lollypop instead after seeing a young girl eating it. Then he sees other things he’d like and he buys a lot, but when he goes back to his car, someone stole all his stuff.
He stops to play football with some strangers.
He stopped to eat and finds his car without front glass and seat.
Pasquale hands in his vote and then for the first time he speaks, very fast and angrily, telling the people there everything that happened to him since he entered Italy. He’s barely understandable, and then he goes out, supposedly to hurry back to Germany, already fed up with Italy.
Furio is married to Magda and they have two sons, and they drive to Rome. She’d really like to stay home, and have a bit of time to herself, but he won’t hear of it, he insists she goes too.
She can’t stand it anymore. “Non ce la faccio più” is her most frequent phrase.
He refuses to let his sons AntonLuca and AntonGiulio use the public toilets. It’s not that easy for Magda, being a woman she insists she needs to go to the bathroom and goes anyway but he openly judges her.
He gave her a list of all the things to bring and she forgot just a silly thing. She sneaks into bathrooms to vent her frustrations, and into bars to get her pills to go on.
They need to change a tyre, but instead of doing it himself, Furio calls for ACI Support because he says that he’s a member and it is his right to demand it. Raul saw Magda at their last stop and was quite taken with her, and now he insists on changing the tyre for her despite all her protests. Furio is not ok with that at all and blames her for this ‘big trouble’. So he changes the tyre again to wait for ACI to arrive. She can’t stand it anymore.
Furio has an accident that involves many cars. The doctor wants to keep him for a few hours so she checks into a hotel with her sons. Raul goes too, into his own room.
Raul keeps pursuing Magda, she does her best to resist and sleeps with her sons instead. He keeps following her and when they finally reach their destination and Furio comes out after voting, he finds the boys alone without her.
Mimmo drove from Rome to Verona to get his grandma, she was there with her daughter, Mimmo’s mum’s sister. Mimmo comes to get her to drive her back home. He has a lot to deal with, he helps her put on her stockings and must remember to give her her medicines. They also stop the car for an injection, but a truck driver stops as well seeing the scene, and helps, He’s good at that. Then she insists of a detour to visits a cemetery, but she can’t remember the name of the person she wanted to visit.
He always speaks really loudly. They stop to eat and sit with a Russian family and Mimmo gives the girl his phone number because grandma insisted.
He checks everything she eats or drinks because mindful of her health.
He stops at the same hotel Magda is staying at, for a toilet-stop.
They finally reach their destination, and grandma finally gets to vote, but then she is found dead inside the cabin. Mimmo screams but nobody seems to share his distress or to offer any kind of comfort, and he runs out crying.
Pasquale, Furio and Mimmo - Carlo Verdone
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