Chi trova un amico trova un tesoro - 1981

 Or “who finds a friend finds a treasure”.

Certainly not the best film they ever made, but still acceptable. Well, I’m so fond of them that it would take a lot for me to hate a movie with them in it.  ^_^

So, this one sees Alan and Charlie, together by chance, through quite the adventure.

Alan keep losing money gambling on horses, the silly boy, and to get himself out of trouble or just to gamble some more, he keeps asking his uncle Brady for money.

This uncle Brady is not well, but he’s been telling Alan for ages that there is a fantastic treasure nobody else knows about, and he should just go and get it, but all this time Alan has lied to him, saying he has a boat ready and will leave soon, while he actually keeps gambling it all and losing it. 

That’s what he does now too, he loses a lot of money and has a big debt, so he runs away. Uncle Brady gives him the map he made himself and Alan goes away… he just needs a boat, and finds it soon.

Charlie is doing an interview because he’s about to sail for a long journey by himself, only he will soon enough realize that he’s not really alone on his boat. They’re already at sea, and Alan keeps stealing his food. The first time Charlie blames his parrot, but he soon finds the real culprit, they fight and Charlie plans to leave him at the nearest port, but while he’s sleeping Alan changes the route, he wants to reach the island his uncle told him about.

When Charlie finds out they fight again, Charlie has a bit of a temper. They end up both overboard, and they can’t reach the boat anymore, so they swim to shore.  (And we never see the parrot again, I think he was in his cage on the boat) .

Charlie is rather upset with him, and wants to take different path. Someone shoots at them, and they are back together. They find an old storeroom from the war days, and then they meet the local people. Mama is queen of the tribe, and her son Anulu is a bit of a fool, but with good intentions :lol

Charlie and Alan help the tribe against a gang of pirates that periodically arrives to take some of them as slave or something. As a thank you, Mama chooses to show them where an old Japanese tank is, so they can use it to get near Kamasuka’s fort. Kamasuka is an old soldier that has stayed here to keep the fort until he’s relieved of his duty… and doesn’t know that the war is over. Alan is sure that the treasure is underneath the fort, so they need to get in.

It turns out that Anulu is his son. Charlie stops the old man from committing harakiri; Kamasuka shows them the treasure, lots and lots of American dollars from the war.

The island is attacked by the guys that were looking for Alan, they heard him speak of the treasure and forced uncle Brady to draw another map. Charlie and Alan beats them all, so now they have a way to get back home. 

It’s a big party, Kamasuka and Mama get married, to Anulu’s great joy, but then Kamasuka tells Alan that he has a document stating that all that money is false. As a consolation prize, Mama gives them an old little statue from her tribe, but Alan is not really interested. He tells them not to tell Charlie about it, but what Charlie overhears makes him think that Alan wants to go away alone, with all the treasure, leaving Charlie behind. Because of that, Charlie takes the moneyand leaves a note. He plans to fly away unnoticed, but three girls slow him down by asking for a goodbye kiss, so when he reaches the plane, Alan is on already. 

Alan tells him that the money is false, but then Kamasuka reaches them on the radio, the pirates came bach and freed the gangsters, threatening the whole island. Alan and Charlie go back, of course, and punch them all.

Some soldiers, Marines maybe, arrive to get the money. Since they can’t spend false money, our guys decided to give it back to the government, only to discover now that it was real indeed. The government spread a rumour that it was false, so that the Japanese wouldn’t care for it, but it was actually real, and only one man knew the whole truth of what it was and where it was, a soldier named Brady…

Not only our guys gave 300 million dollarsaway, but they also forgot Mama’s gift there, who ends up in a museum, worth something like 10 millions itself.

The movie ends showing us that Alan and Charlie are working at that same museum, cleaning.

Alan… Terence Hill

Charlie… Bud Spencer

Mama… Louise Bennett

Bianco, rosso e Verdone - 1981

 

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

Sono pazzo di Iris Blond - 1996

 Romeo is in a pop band with his girlfriend and his best friend, then they break up because the other two get together.

A year later Romeo speaks to the Saint, a woman who sees everything and knows everything, and she tells him that his life is about to change, that he will meet a woman whose name is a flower, and will find love and money and happiness.

While working - he plays the piano - he meets Marguerite, who sings, and six months later they’re still together in Bruxelles. He’s not happy though, and goes out at night to eat at a fast-food, and meets the waitress, Iris. 

He meets her again and starts with the lies - he says his partner is a 27 year-old fashion photographer,Sylvie.

She writes small poems, so he tells her they should turn them into songs and record them. Marguerite follows him and sees them together, so they break up and he goes to stay at Iris’ place.They decide to focus on their work, and Iris tells him they must never sleep together so not to ruin their partnership. They practice a lot and make a few song, and find a job playing at some club in town, and they are much liked.

A producer sees them and makes a big offer to Iris, but only her. She’s 25, and it’s a great offer, but they don’t want Romeo because they say he’s demodè, they want a younger image for her.

Iris gets home and they make love, she waits to tell him the news til the morning. Romeo tells her he’s in love with her, and then she tells him her news. Romeo is so angry, he yells at her saying things very very hurtful, calling her names, bad words, making her cry, wanting back all the money he paid for her home and their job, until she goes to stay with her father… or so she says. Romeo is exactly her father’s age.

Iris takes the train to Paris, wants him to go with her, but he’s still angry, talks to her like a scolding father, then he asks her not to go. 

Of course she goes anyway.

It ends with Romeo playing in the club, without her.

Romeo - Carlo Verdone

Iris- Claudia Gerini

Borotalco - 1982

 It starts with showing Sergio and Nadia preparing themselves to go out (first shot is at his feet being washed and dried). Only Sergio is with Rossella, while Nadia is with a guy that doesn’t want her to find a job for herself.

Both Sergio and Nadia show up for the same job. They both go door to door selling contracts, she does really well, he doesn’t. When he learns how good she is, he asks her to help him, to show him how it’s done. 

She was supposed to speak with Mr Fantoni, to sell him a contract, so he goes there to meet her, but after a long wait she still isn’t there, so he goes in by himself. Nadia was busy buying tickets for Dalla’s concert. 

Sergio enters his apartment and there’s a woman who for no reason whatsoever has him see her in the nude, completely, front and back.

Sergio and Manuel talk a lot, then the guy is arrested, his real name is Cuticchia, so Sergio is left there to tidy up and leave. Sergio takes a look around, tries on some of his clothes, tries to talk like him. When Nadia arrives, Sergio continues the charade, pretending to be Manuel Fantoni. 

Later he tries to break things up, inventing a trip abroad, but he likes her so he goes to her house intending to come clean and tell her everything, but there are all her friends so he goes back to be Manuel, but runs away when his girlfriend comes looking for Sergio.

He keeps seeing her as Manuel, inventing lots of stories of things he’s done, places he’s been, people he’s met. He even pretends to know Lucio Dalla, so he pretends his bike is broken to make her miss the concert. He keeps up the pretence, and when they get there, he leaves her new song in his roulotte.

He visits Manuel in prison for advice, and has permission to take her to his house. He does, but tired of waiting for Sergio to show up, Rossella’s father went to his friend Marcello and got the truth out of him, so he barged into the apartment, revealing everything. Nadia goes out and cries while driving, so she has an accident. Sergio goes to the hospital, but she never wants to see him again.

Nadia marries Cristiano, they open a bar together. Sergio marries Rossella, and now they have a baby boy together. 

Nadia calls Sergio under another name, to see him again and talk, and then they kiss.

Sergio - Carlo Verdone 

All the other actors are known, but I don’t remember their name and Italian movies do not have the cast in the ending credits. Absurd, I know.

Ah, Marcello is Christian De Sica, and for whatever reason he spoke with an unnatural accent, as if he was Sicilian or something.

Compagni di scuola - 1988

 Not really funny, no, it’s more bitter than funny. Not a bad movie per se, it’s not, but it’s not for me, I never want to see it again. It’s the story that I don’t like. It’s about a group of people and what became of them. They were in school together and after 15 years they meet again.

All these people have their own problems, no doubt, but I can’t stand that nobody of these grown up took care of the teenage girl that joined their group, and left her alone with a man that took advantage of her, and nobody really seemed to care. A woman does, a bit, and takes her home, but nobody seems to care about what happened to her. No, it’s the film that doesn’t care about her, that treats her like an object needed to talk about the man.

 

It starts from Federica, who sent everyone an invitation, she wanted to have a party and see her old friends, of a time when life was easier. All her classmates came but 4 because one died, one refused and for the other two the reason is not known. 

-

• Piero Ruffolo, called Potato from his mates, seems almost ashamed of being a high-school teacher. He is always nervous, appears scared by the world, in a way, and is not surprising that he fell in love with one of his students. He is weak, clumsy and submissive. He went to the wrong party first and let the lady of the house take all the bottle he brought, then tries to steal a plant but is caught.  When Valenzani tells him to go and get the girl, take her to the party, he never questions it, he does it. He is married to a woman that he finds vulgar and annoying, with a son that he doesn’t even know, always with his mother. He can’t stand that situation, but he would have usually been too scared to do anything about it . After talking to MariaRita and also a waiter in his same situation, who wishes he had divorced many years before, he leaves the party to break things up with his family.  His wife’s father tries to patch things up between them, but has a hard time containing his crazy daughter and there’s little nothing he can do. When Piero gets back to the party and sees Cristina crying, at first he tries to beat up Valenzani, but then he refuses to talk to her. Maybe he was jealout that someone touched her when he never did, which shows that he’s a sh*t person somewhere inside, because she didn’t cheat, didn’t want it, she’s the victim here but nobody seems to realise that. When Cristina gets a ride home, Piero realises she’s going away and suddenly he’s all over her again, wants to see her again, maybe because he’s in love or maybe because after leaving his family she’s the only thing he had left.
• Federica Polidori is their host, a beautiful, elegant woman living in a beautiful villa. She calls herself a kept woman, for a long time it seems that the sixth man among the richest in Italy paid for everything for her. She does not look happy, and at the end she admits she’s been evicted and has nothing left. She’ll go stay with Gloria, a classmate who offers to take her in.
• Ciardulli has always been a bit of a clown, and he plans to scare them all with a fake robbery but the politician’s bodyguards beat him up. He went into show-business, but at the moment is full of debts. He tries poker, but his classmates win. He refuses to pay because he has no money and instead asks them for some, even going round on his knees. Still, he’s also always ready to help, like when they need to carry the wheelchair upstairs or when Piero’s car is broken. He’s the only one that tries to help him with it.
• Walter Finocchiaro arrives driving an expensive red car. He’s loud and blunt. He drives a mate away, Fabris, with his constant mocking of him. Much later he complains that the money he had with him is gone, someone in there stole it, but then re stays for the rest of the party.
• Valenzani went into politics, he’s an undersecretary, and is used to people trying to ask him for favours, as he is used to getting whatever he wants, whatever the cost. He acts like a big man but he’s nothing more than a criminal with a drug problem. He takes advantage of a high-school student and then goes away.
• Valeria Donati and Luca Guglielmi- She comes with a friend. She’s angry at her soon-to-be ex-husband and almost leaves when she sees him at the party, she says she never wants to see him again, and spends the first half of the party avoiding him. Postiglione keeps talking to her though, and eventually she can’t listen to him anymore and prefers Luca’s company. He talks to her all night trying to win her back, and eventually they kiss and he’ll take her home on his bike.
• Maria Rita is a psychologist, a therapist, and therefore everyone tends to talk to her about their business. She listens to people all night, then after a bit of drinking she snaps at Piero that nobody ever wants to listen to her, but later apologises. She takes Cristina home.
• Lepore and Santolamazza, they prank the others all night. Lepore tells them that Lino Santolamazza had an accident, that all his family died and he was badly injured and on a wheelchair. We see quite early that they laugh about it together. They go on with it all night, planning for a big scene at the end, when he would scream of a miracle that he can walk again, but Ciardulli sees him and understands it was all a lie, so he ties his wheelchair to the catering van, about to leave. Lino gets hurt and everybody learns the truth.
• Piermaria Fabris apparently changed a lot since his school days. He appears to be a friendly and kind man, brings flowers for their host and is happy to meet his old friends, but quite soon he gets fed up with their mocking and the fact that nobody recognises him and nobody has a friendly word for him, and goes away.
• Postiglione is so boring, talks so much that they all avoid him. He talks incessantly to anyone he can grasp, literally, until they put something in his wine and he spends the rest of the night sleeping on a couch.
• Gloria arrives with a baby boy that she could not leave at home. She is not married and does not want to talk of the baby’s father. She loves her child and is friendly with anyone, and when she learns that Federica doesn’t have a house anymore, promptly offers her to live together for a while, until she’s settled.
• Jolanda drives Valeria to the party, and is totally on her side against Luca. She’s outgoing and self-confident, and a bit annoyed when Valeria stays with Luca at the end. Jolanda gets stuck with Lino more than once, the two pranksters (lets call them that…) have her spoon-feed him, and then move his chair around to dance. 
• Margherita is married to a man from the south, a Carabinieri captain, who will come get her at midnight. She spends the whole night with Toscani, they talk, they dance, he keeps flirting with her. At 2350 her husband arrives and he says that the man came ten minutes early. She replies that it’s him that arrived 15 years too late, and then kisses him before going out. Later we see that he finally found the earring (or whatever it was) that she lost, and smiles. Either because he’s thinking of her, or because he’s planning to see her again, maybe using the earring as an excuse
• Gioia is the female clown of the class, always making the others laugh. She’s sad inside because she can never have children.
• Giulio Atteni is clearly in love with Federica, unrequited. He is enthusiastic, shoots a video of their reunion, and is the only one that tries to stop Walter and the others when they keep mocking Fabris at the beginning. He laughed too, at first, but then he noticed Fabris’ expression and tried to stop the others from continuing. 

Piero Ruffolo - Carlo Verdonea

Federica Polidori - Nancy Brilli

Bruno Ciardulli - Christian De Sica

Walter Finocchiaro - Angelo Bernabucci

Mauro Valenzani - Massimo Ghini

Valeria Donati - Eleonora Giorgi

Luca Guglielmi - Piero Natoli

Maria Rita Amoroso - Athina cenci

Cristina - Natasha Hovey

Armando Lepore - Maurizio Ferrini

Lino Santolamazza - Alessandro Benvenuti

Piermaria Fabris - Fabio Traversa

Ottavio Postiglione - Luigi Petrucci

Gloria Montanari - Luisa Maneri

Jolanda Scarpellini - Isa Gallinelli

Margherita Serafini - Giusi Cataldo

Toscani - Giovanni Vettorazzo

Gioia Savastano - Carmela Vincenti

plus

Gianny Musy - Piero’s father-in-law

Le vie del signore sono finite - 1987

Camillo has a psichosomatic paralysis, can’t walk but there is nothing wrong with him. He is like this since his girlfriend Vittoria left him. He went to Lourdes with his brother Leone to help him and became friends with Orlando, also on a wheelchair.

When Vittoria goes back to Camillo, he soon finds he can walk again, but doesn’t want to tell anyone for Orlando’s sake. He tells his brother and Vittoria though.

He asks Vittoria to introduce a friend to Orlando, but it doesn’t go well. Orlando, not knowing that Vittoria is Camillo’s girlfriend, likes her instead of her friend. On the other hand, the girl Anita is a passionate supporter of Mussolini rising to power, and thinks him a subversive.

Orlando sees Camillo on his feet through a crack in the door.

Camillo tries to get a patent for his inventions, but it doesn’t go well because a cure for hair loss is not the priority during Mussolini’s reign.

Back home, he learns that Orlando went out with Vittoria and becomes crazy jealous, and is hurtful to them both.

She says she was simply translated his poems into French, but Camillo doesn’t relent, and after all Orlando was in love with Vittoria.

Because of Anita going to tell on Camillo’s political ideas, he is assaulted, but in defending himself one of the others gets shot in the leg, and Camillo ends up in prison.

Two years later, the prison has taken its toll and he is once again on a wheelchair. Well, he also thought that Orlando had gone to Paris with Vittoria, that they were together, but orlando comes to tell him he’ll soon be out of prison and that he was never with Vittoria.

Finally Camillo gets out and goes back home, to his brother and father.

Camillo is still crazy jealous and goes mad when he finds a postcard from Vittoria in Leone’s drawer, hidden away. He’s mad at his brother from keeping it from him, and since the postcard is a picture of her with the hat he gave Orlando (and Orlando gave it to her before she left), he thinks that she actually is with Orlando. Leone reinforces this idea. Leone had been the one always taking care of him and now he feels abandoned.

Camillo goes to Paris to look for Vittoria who is not at the old address, but some people help him find her. She works as a translator for an Italian writer and Camillo is of course sure that it is Orlando, who lied to him and betrayed him… but of course it’s not, Orlando is not the only man in Italy who writes.

Camillo talks with the writer (and once again is less than kind…) and waits for Vittoria to arrive. 

They finally meet and kiss and promise to stay together forever.

Camillo Pianese - Massimo Troisi

No grazie, il caffè mi rende nervoso - 1982

 Michele Giuffrida works for a newspaper in Napoli, but he’s not a great journalist, he does whatever small job they give him. He has a father he keeps locked in a house with a woman watching over him, and he doesn’t let him out because he says he’s dangerous. This is because his father is resentful that he says that he wrote various songs and they were all stolen from him.

Lisa is a photographer with ambitions.

There’s going to be a Festival in Napoli, but there’s an accident and three people are injured.

A postcard arrives at the “Il Mattino”, signed by Funiculì Funiculà, which is the title of an old song, warning that everyone connected with the Festival will die. Michele wants to ignore it, but Lisa gives it to their boss and it gets printed. Michele is assigned to write on this, but he’s scared. He keeps saying he’s not able to write good articles, but Lisa keeps pushing him and involving him in her investigation.

At night, while helping a blind guy called Dieci Decimi, he hears gunshots, and a guy comes stumbling towards him, saying weird things he doesn’t understand the meaning of, and then dies. Criminals arrive on cars and beat him up and take him away, sure that the guy told him something important and even gave him something. Michele tells them everything he remembers but he has nothing. He manages to escape but then he is caught again while with Lisa , so they take her away to force him to give them what they think he has. Michele tries to free her, but in the end she is the one to help both of them out of there.

Troisi plays himself, actor Troisi who has been invited to this Festival, but then he gets threatened by the maniac who has already killed once, James Senese who had ignored his warning.

No matter how much security guards they promise him, he refuses to take part in this festival anymore. Lisa suggests saying that, but then surprising everyone at the end. He gets killed.

Eventually Lisa meets Michele in his ‘study’, and finds out the truth, that it was Michele who killed them because he can’t stand all their talk about changing Napoli, which is perfect the way it always was. The police arrive to arrest him.

Michele - Lello Arena

Massimo Troisi as himself.

Scusate il ritardo - 1983

Interesting film, but I don't like the main character at all, he's spoiled, idle, totally self-absorbed, not really caring about anything else. I don't dislike him either, because he's not a bad guy, in his own way he does care for his loved ones, but it's really hard to stand him. He should treasure the friends he's got.

Vincenzo lives with his mother and his sister’s family. He has no job but doesn’t really want to find one. His sister buys the food, his mother takes care of his clothes. He only helps a little around the house when he is asked, but still complains that they asked him instead of his brother Alfredo, when he’s home. Vincenzo is also jealous of his brother, because he made a career for himself as a comedian. He has a friend, Tonino, who keeps crying because his girlfriend of three years left him for someone else, but Vincenzo is rather annoyed by all his whining. He listens because Tonino insists he needs to talk, but is not very understanding, and even tells him that maybe it was his fault because he was too attentive, oppressive, and maybe ugly too.

When he meets Anna, a friend of his sister, he likes her immediately, and they start going out with friends, but they quickly become a couple. Anna had a relationship who ended badly, and she’s looking for some tenderness.

Vincenzo has the keys to the apartment above his own, belonging to an old professor (we see Vincenzo bringing him his meal, entering with his key), and he takes Anna there when he knows the professor is out, so they can make love (without asking the old man's permission, btw).

When Anna tells him she loves him, he says he’s glad, and with a little prompting he admits ‘me too’. 

He never tells her anything nice, never starts anything; he shows a total lack of empathy when a crying Tonino speaks of killing himself. When Tonino speaks of getting it over with, that one day as a lion is better than a hundred as a sheep, Vincenzo tells him to live 50 years as a teddy bear, not really believing he would do it, and as a way to shut him up (fai 50 giorni da orsacchiotto)

Vincenzo never stays long in bed after love, he always gets up to make coffee or to listen to the radio or whatever, and when she speaks to him about her doubts he is sort of annoyed.

Eventually she leaves him, convinced he would not even care.

Tonino is not sad anymore, he finally found another girl that he likes, and he tries to console Vincenzo but Vincenzo is rather… he says that their situations are completely different, because it was clear why Tonino had been dumped, because he was ugly and sent her an ugly picture of himself, while there is no known reason why Anna left him. Even adds that Tonino’s situation was better because there was the other guy, the Swedish guy, so he knew there was a reason, she left him for that Swedish guy, and he at least knew that he was the second person in the world she liked best…

Tonino is a good, understanding friend and speaks to Anna to tell her that Vincenzo feels awful and they should talk, and so she goes to him to tell him she had even thought of going back to her job in Perugia, and he asks her not to go, to stay with him. 

The end.

Vincenzo - Massimo Troisi

Anna - Giuliana De Sio

Tonino - Lello Arena

The film was written and directed by Troisi.

Ricomincio da tre - 1981

Restored. A film written and directed by Troisi. Music by Pino Daniele.

Well, it’s a film with Troisi so you know how it is, melancholic music, slow scenes, sentences that never get finished, …

Gaetano leaves his friends and everything behind when he moves to Firenze to stay with his aunt Antonia. He says that this time he will leave for real, he’s tired, he says he wants to start back , start from 3, not from scratch (or zero, as we say) but from three, because some things are good and he wants to keep them. He has a family, he has friends, he even has a job.

He has no plan, we see him hitchhiking and being given a ride by a man who wants to kill himself, so instead it’s Gaetano who drives him to the mental hospital. He meets Marta there, and he likes her. He sees her again, and asks him about the guy, so they talk about suicides.

He finds out his aunt, who he was staying with, has a relationship with a professor, so he leaves her house and stays in Frank’s apartment. Frank is American, not exactly a preacher but he goes to talk to people, something like that.

Marta tells him he acts like he wants to win her over, and he denies it, she wonders if he likes her, and he jumps up and tells her no, or yes, but like a sister…

Hs friend Lello comes to visit from Napoli. After hours of looking for a hotel, Gaetano would like to go out with Marta, but Lello has an accident so he goes to see him at the hospital (hospital… nobody around, a kind nun in white, everybody comfortably in their bed… nothing like the hospital I’ve seen…)

Marta talks to Gaetano about his shyness and always being hesitant, then she offers him to spend the night, since it’s already 2am. She is the one to take the initiative, since he wouldn’t have been able to , she blames his lack of self-confidence. Gaetano moves in with her.

Everybody, upon hearing that he’s from Napoli, asks him if he’s an immigrant; this annoys him a bit, because he says he had a job before, he simply decided he wanted to travel…

Gaetano always keeps his real thoughts to himself, just like he never confessed that he really liked her, he pretends he’s not jealous at all, and when she tells him she slept with someone else, he doesn’t say anything, pretends like he’s not jealous and doesn’t care, but he does. She insists she loves him, though, and when she thinks she’s pregnant, she says she’s not 100% sure who the father is, but she wants to have the baby with Gaetano because she loves him. 

At first he’s rather upset by this, but they talk and he has a bit of time to think, and then he surprises her by talking about names, and she smiles when he suggests Ugo like his father, and then Ciro if she doesn’t like the other one. This means that he’s decided he loves her too and wants to raise the child with her.

Gaetano - Massimo Troisi

“Lello” Raffaele - Lello Arena

Marta - Fiorenza Marchegiani

Frankie - Vincent Gentile

Robertino - Renato Scarpa

Mental patient - Marco Messeri

Suicidal car driver - Michele Mirabella

Pensavo fosse amore… invece era un calesse - 1991

 Nice, without the finale you’d expect if you’ve never seen it. Nice film, good. Slow, but that’s a given. There’s Troisi in it, which means repeated sentences, slow scenes. 

Tommaso and Cecilia are together. On their anniversary they make love but at a certain point he moans Elena, or so it seems, and she gets mad. He denies knowing any Elena, and she storms out. Then there’s a Raùla that he tells her doesn’t exist. Cecilia thinks he keeps lying to her. Amedeo, who works with Cecilia at the bookstore, tells him that lies kill love. Tommaso insists he did not say Elena and he has nothing to do with any Raùla.

Chiara, Amedeo’s younger sister, comes onto him but he calls her little girl,  tells her no and leaves. Next time they see each other, she puts poison in his coffee.

Cecilia is always angry and unhappy, and her mom tells her to leave Tommaso, to erase him, and she tries. She leaves him by telling Amedeo while Tommaso is still hospitalised.  They were about to get married. When his friends tell him they saw Cecilia with another man, he complains they shouldn’t have, but then when he hears she was at a party also attended by Amedeo and his new girlfriend Flora (ex girlfriend of their friend Giorgio who cried for her at Amedeo’s house when she left him), Tommaso wants to know everything is very insistent, if she was with someone else.

When later on he talks briefly with Cecilia, she tells him she’s with Enea now, and he makes her feel special, desired. She also tells him that he was spent with her, without fire, that he’s better without her.

He can’t move on, forget her.

He sees Enea and dislikes him. He finds another girl and the next morning he tells her she shouldn’t have left her ex-boyfriend.

Enea is always loud, always doing something, but soon we see she’s less enthusiastic , and one day Enea sees her with Tommaso in a private moment behind a bookshelf and is heartbroken.

Chiara sets fire to Enea’s scooter because he had called her a child.

Tommaso and Cecilia are again planning their wedding, but he feels different, he’s not in love anymore. He leaves her waiting at the altar then sends her a note and they meet at a cafè for coffee, still in their wedding clothes.

He says they’re not made for marriage, and they plan on seeing each other again.

Tommaso - Massimo Troisi

Cecilia - Francesca Neri

La cena perfetta - 2022

 It’s… well, not bad, Carmine was nice and sweet, but the ending is wrong, so wrong, I didn’t like it at all. To the end of this to learn exactly why, but come on, had they stopped sooner it would have been bittersweet, but at least it would have made a bit of sense and be quite the romantic ending, this way it is absurd.  

Carmine lives in Napoli, and is quite proud of being close to local Boss Pasquale. Actually, Pasquale bares with him only because Carmine’s father saved his life once, losing his own.

He likes to think himself an important man, part of the gang, Pasquale’s right hand, but he’s not. When Pasquale tells him one of his friends stole from him, he wants to be part of the mission, he insists, so he goes. He waits outside to see if he tries to escape, and sure enough the guy does. Carmine follows him and stops him at gunpoint. The guy talks to him, they’ve been friends since they were children, and the guy also tells him that he didn’t really steal anything, he earned that money, and after a while Carmine lets him go, and confesses everything to Pasquale.

The boss has no intention of giving him another chance, he knows Carmine is not made for that, so instead he sends him to Rome. Pasquale bought a restaurant, it’s now in Carmine’s name, and it will be useful in washing their dirty money. Carmine does that, tries to act well and does what he’s told, hoping to go back home, but then one of Pasquale’s men tells him that he’ll never go back, that he had become a burden and Pasquale got rid of him.

A girl makes a scene inside the restaurant, complaining about the terrible food, and seems rather distraught by what the restaurant has become. He looks on the internet and finds her, the previous chef of the restaurant. She learned from someone important, but her food didn’t meet with the approval of the critics, and she closed in less than two years.

Carmine is intrigued and goes to eat where she works now (as a sous chef, or less). Delighted by the food, he makes her an offer, to come working for him and sort of get her restaurant back.

She accepts, but has conditions and is quite bossy… actually she’s very, very bossy. He uses his own money to buy a kitchen for 20.000 E., and still has to pay for all the work done inside, which is roughly the same amount, and also will have to pay the salary to her, the chef, but also to her team of seven people.

And he has told nothing to Pasquale. It’s just that if he has to stay here for long, he wants to do something and have fun…

The first night is a success, sure, but Carmine has to pay a lot of money he doesn’t have, so he takes some from the dirty stash. He pays everyone and they work hard, but the restaurant finds it difficult to be successful, and Consuelo is upset. He tells her they only need time, but she knows that it never mattered when she had it before, she says people don’t like her cooking, it had already been described as without soul, so she asks him questions about the only few dishes he can make and they talk of his grandma who used to feed all the kids, and she realises she never put any memories into her own dishes, she always escaped from her memories, so she adds something to the menu.

People at Napoli had noticed an inconsistency with the money and Carmine is in trouble now.

He takes time, and hopes for the best. He admits to Consuelo that he did it all for her, but denies any money problem when she tells him that as a high class restaurant the first two years will be difficult and only after that they’ll start seeing the money fly.

He’s rather desperate, so he accepts his friend Giuliano’s offer to go to Napoli and get his Margherita out of there, but he’s too late. Pasquale’s men get to Margherita and take him away, to lure Giuliano in or something. Giuliano is desperate, and while they talk Carmine admits what he did so Giuliano sends him the money he needs - Carmine refused to take the money so he sent them before going to Napoli. Carmine goes straight to the bank, more confident now that the numbers are alright.

A cop talks to Carmine, giving him the news that both Giuliano and Margherita were killed at 1am, and Carmine called Giuliano’s cell phone midmorning. Pasquale had his cell phone, so now Carmine knows he’s done for. Pasquale is coming to the restaurant that night so he closes it and opens only for them. He plans to cook himself, doesn’t want Consuelo involved, but when she learns that he’s cooking, she insists for doing it herself.

Pasquale actually loves the dinner that reminds of their past, the person they loved. Carmine loved him a a father once, but now he wants something for himself, something clean. Still, Pasquale hesitates in giving the order to kill Carmine, so his man whatshisname shoots him instead, Vincenzo who was also the one that killed Giuliano and Margherita. 

Carmine had an agreement with the PM, there were microphones and the police arrived to arrest them all. Vincenzo tries to use Consuelo as hostage but when he shouts in her ear she knocks him down and is arrested.

Now Carmine has to go, he tells Consuelo everything and leaves her the restaurant while he goes away in protected custody and can’t have contacts anymore.

One year later Carmine is working for the same great chef that Consuelo told him about, the one in Denmark where she worked too. Consuelo comes to see him - how did she know he was there is not specified, of course, because it doesn’t make a lot of sense… none at all, actually. Not sure it makes sense that he’s there to begin with, but maybe under a false name… it’s quite the secluded place after all… but he has to be still in protected custody since there’s no way the trial is over, no way he’s no more in danger, after merely a year! 

The cast : 

Giuliano - Marlon Joubert

Jessica - Teresa Ferrari

Margherita - Giampiero de Concilio

Luca Villani - Stefano Sardo

I don’t know the protagonists’ names because Italians don’t add the cast to the ending credits and I have no idea who they are, who is who, but am not in the mood to google it. Can they ever do anything right, I wonder?!?

So I only added this few, these names are listed, the only characters I remember seeing in the film. 

Un boss in salotto - 2013

 It’s not bad, but it has no finale, not really. It’s not a funny movie like it seemed in the trailer, though, it has many melancholic moments, bittersweet.

it’s the story of Carmela that came from the South but made a life for herself in the North under the name Cristina. Now she plays the perfect housewife, and wants perfect children and a perfect husband. She pretends her brother Ciro died, because she cut all contacts with him since he started being a criminal. Now she’s told that he must stay at her house waiting for his trial, he’s suspected to be part of the Camorra. This shocks her world.

Michele is her husband, working for the Manetti, the local big real estate company , creating campaigns for them. He hopes for a promotion, but his boss doesn’t really like his ideas. Also, he secretly has money problems, hasn’t paid rent for three months and has asked to borrow money.

They have a son, Vittorio (she probably wanted Vittoria but she had a boy), who hates his school with the uniforms and the bullies.

Then there is Fortuna, who hates tutus but wears it anyway at her dance school because she knows that for her mom perfect daughters wear tutus.

When Ciro arrives, the family is shocked to see him alive, Cristina is very hostile, she throws away what he cooks, doesn’t want anyone to know she has a brother. Still, she could sign that she refuses to have him in her house and he would spend the time since the trial in jail, but at the end she can’t do it.

Vittorio has troubles with the Manetti kid, who is a bully, but his mother defends the other kid because she wants to ingratiate herself with the Manettis, she says it’s important for their future.

One day, everybody but them sees the news on television speaking of Ciro as if he was a big boss , and since that moment everything changes. Some people are afraid of his reaction, while Manetti wants the money he’s sure a mafia boss could wash through his company.

All of a sudden they get everything: Michele is promoted, has a big office, a hot secretary, a new car. Vittorio is not bullied anymore, instead the Manetti kid gives his the test answers and has him go to parties.

They’re both very excited and happy. 

Ciro goes to school to warn Manetti that his kid has to behave better with his nephew, and that’s when he learns what the man really wants, and the reason for all that is happening.

He wants to tell them, but they seem so happy, he can’t do it.

Then it happens that during the investigation, all the real camorristi testified that they’d never known him, that he has nothing to do with them, so he doesn’t even need to go to trial, he’s free.

Cristina is happy for him, relieved really. 

But everyone learns about that from the news, and Michele gets demoted, much worse than he started, “almost fired” he calls it. Vittorio is suspended from school (or expelled? can’t remember).

Cristina finally realises what it was all about. She really believed it was their hard work that got them everything, and is shocked to learn the truth. 

The family talks, they hug each other and support each other, while Ciro has to leave and go back to Napoli. That’s how it ends. Not a word on what happens next, because things are not as they started, things are much worse. Will they still have a job, a house? 

Cristina - Paola Cortellesi

Ciro - Rocco Papaleo

Michele - Luca Argentero

Mrs Manetti - Angela Finocchiaro

Manetti - Franz