Alba Rohrwacher Movies

In Bread and Tulips, director Silvio Soldini detailed the journey of a discontented housewife who threw caution to the wind to find true happiness in Venice; in Days and Clouds, the same filmmaker explores the opposite side of the coin by telling the tale of a middle-class homemaker from Genoa who suddenly finds her life turned upside down. Elsa (Margherita Buy) is the picture of middle-class contentment: she's happily married, well adjusted, and spends most of her spare time developing her skills as an amateur historian specializing in restoration. Recently, Elsa even decided to return to school in order to earn her degree. One day, after gently scraping the ceiling of a local chapel to reveal hidden angels that hadn't seen the light of day in decades, Elsa is informed by her husband, Michele (Antonio Albanese), that the couple will have to give up their posh apartment. Michele was formerly a partner in a successful shipping firm, but now that his partner has forced him out of the business, the happy husband and wife won't be able to maintain their current lifestyle. In the aftermath of that disheartening revelation, Elsa and Michele both try to find work while dealing with the predicament in directly opposing ways. Later, after moving into a much smaller apartment, the cracks in Elsa and Michele's now fragile marriage gradually begin to widen. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

With Quiet Chaos (Caos Calmo), acclaimed Italian helmer Nanni Moretti steps away from his standard directorial role to essay the lead and co-author the script in a gentle psychological drama directed by Antonello Grimaldi. Moretti stars as Pietro, a film executive whose life takes an irreversible and devastating turn one fateful morning. During a trip to the beach with his brother, Pietro's path intersects with that of a woman, Eleonora (Isabella Ferrari), who is drowning in the ocean; horrified, Pietro rushes in to save her. He subsequently returns home only to discover that his wife, Lara, just died in a nasty falling accident; devastated to the core, this nascent widower must make the necessary psychological accommodations to adjust to life as a single parent, with sole responsibility for raising his ten-year-old daughter, Claudia (Blu Yoshimi). Almost instinctively, as a reaction to Lara's death, Pietro opts to sit and wait for his daughter to finish school each day (in a park across from the school), in lieu of abandoning her to his own priorities and commitments. This means that the fellow's colleagues in the film industry must, by necessity, come to do business with him in the park. Through it all, Pietro remains silently dumbfounded that the tragedy itself hasn't shaken him more, that the grief (the "quiet chaos" of the title) is subtly agonizing instead of grossly traumatizing and debilitating. Nevertheless, he ultimately begins to approach a full realization and acceptance of his loss, and gains an enhanced awareness of himself and others from the potentially crippling events thrust into his path. Valeria Golino (Rain Man) co-stars; Roman Polanski appears in a cameo as one of Pietro's industry colleagues. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

An amateur theatrical troupe struggles to earn a living by day and bring the crowds to their feet every night in director Emanuele Barresi's madcap ensemble farce featuring Rocco Papaleo, Alba Rohrwacher, Raffaele Pisu, and Paolo Ruffini. Every night, the dedicated actors at a small theater put aside their daily concerns in order to deliver the best show possible. When a series of unfortunate events bring the future of the theater into question, each actor must consider a future with no creative outlet as they contend with issues of life, love, health, and employment. As the curtains rise on the opening night of their latest production, all of their problems are systematically brought out into the open and miraculously solved during a spectacular series of plot twists and cliffhangers. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

This lavish, sprawling drama from filmmaker Luca Guadagnino has drawn numerous comparisons to the films of Luchino Visconti for the grace with which it plumbs the inner workings of the Italian upper crust. Edoardo Recchi Sr. (Gabriele Ferzetti) is the aging patriarch of a Milanese clan that has amassed a significant fortune over the years through shrewd investments in the textile business. Edoardo Sr. has a beautiful wife, Allegra (Marisa Berenson), and the two have a reliable and dependable son, Tancredi (Pippo Delbono). Years ago, Tancredi met, fell in love with, and then married a woman named Emma (Tilda Swinton) amid a trip to Russia, and brought her back home to Milan; their children include sons Edoardo Jr. (Flavio Parenti) and Gianluca (Mattia Zaccaro), and artist daughter Elisabetta (Alba Rohrwacher). The family gathers for a reunion at Edoardo Sr. and Allegra's villa in Milan, but the happy gathering takes a somber turn when Edoardo suddenly dies not long after having lunch with his family. But the death is far from the only pivotal event that occurs that day: Edoardo Jr. also introduces his mother to a chef, Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), with whom he plans to open a restaurant, and Emma finds herself drawn to the culinary artist. Meanwhile, Emma learns that Elisabetta is a lesbian, and though initially startled by this news, she takes the liberation of her daughter as inspiration for her own liberation from confining nuptials. On impulse, Emma travels to San Remo, catches sight of Antonio, and finds herself helplessly drawn to him. Meanwhile, as Emma and Elisabetta undertake their life-changing journeys, all of the men in the Recchi clan outside of Edoardo Jr. feel bound to profit-driven motives -- the commercialism of a class that has long ago shucked responsibility for its workers. This critically acclaimed film constituted Swinton's second collaboration with Guadagnino; they first worked together on the 1999 feature The Protagonists. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Two people unhappy in their relationships turn to one another in this drama from filmmaker Silvio Soldini. Anna (Alba Rohrwacher) is a woman in her early thirties who works as an accountant at a large insurance firm. Anna gets along well with her family and lives with her long-time boyfriend, Alessio (Giuseppe Battiston), a nice guy who thinks they should settle down and have a child. But Anna feels the excitement has gone out of their relationship, and when one of her co-workers, Domenico (Pierfrancesco Favino), begins flirting with her, she's intrigued and responds in kind. Before long, Anna and Domenico are having an affair, but while she's straying from a relationship she's not certain has a future, he has a wife (Teresa Saponangelo) and two children, and even if he's not always happy at home he's not prepared to leave his family. In time, Anna wants more out of her romance with Domenico than a few hours a week in a cheap motel, but Domenico makes no secret of his life with his family, and there's no resolution to their situation that won't leave someone hurt. Come Undone (aka Cosa Voglio di Piu [What More Do I Want]) was an official selection at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi