Nanni Moretti Movies

At the time of its production, To Each His Own Cinema represented the latest arrival in a tidal wave of internationally oriented omnibus films, with no official relation between them but all produced within a few years of one another. Few could claim a roster of talent comparable to this one, which boasts contributions by 33 of the most acclaimed directors in world cinema,
each responsible for three minutes of celluloid. Gilles Jacob, president of the Cannes Festival, devised the project as a "gift" to commemorate the festival's 60th birthday, and recruited many Golden Palm winners in the directorial selection process. Simply put, Jacob asked each director to express, cinematically, his or her "state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theater." Featured filmmakers include Joel and Ethan Coen; Olivier Assayas; Atom Egoyan; Walter Salles; Lars von Trier; Nanni Moretti; Roman Polanski; Theo Angelopoulos; Chen Kaige; Andrei Konchalovsky; and many, many others. Many of the initial entries (by Angelopoulos and others) involve the neglect or disrepute into which contemporary cinema, as a collective viewing experience, has fallen; a few segments, such as the Coen Brothers' short, about a cowboy (Josh Brolin) who attempts to determine which movie he should go see in sunny Los Angeles, employ a light and whimsical approach. At the other end of the spectrum sits David Cronenberg's piece -- a brutal short in which he prepares to commit a very public and graphic suicide on television before millions of viewers. Other highlights include Moretti -- offering a typically witty divertissement on what cinema means -- and Zhang Yimou, who lyrically depicts the gathering of numerous rural children for a screening at a movie theater. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Marcello Mastroianni plays several different roles in this off-beat, witty exploration of a man with multiple personalities from world-class filmmaker Raúl Ruiz. Mastroianni first appears as Parisian traveling salesman Mateo Strano who suddenly shows up at the home of Maria, the wife he abandoned twenty years before. She eventually remarried Andre. Mateo begins telling the skeptical Andre that he never really left Marie. Instead he was bewitched by fairies and has been living in the apartment across the street the entire time. He seems so serious, that he is able to lure Andre to the alleged apartment. There Mateo murders him with a hammer and then calmly returns to Maria who seems nonplused by the sudden turn. With pride she shows Mateo their adopted daughter. Mastroianni next appears as Sorbonne professor of negative anthropology Georges Vickers, a grown man who still lives with his cranky mother until he inexplicably leaves to become a vagrant. Living on the streets, he encounters Tania, a streetwalker with a passion for the philosophies of author Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan. The hooker and the tramp stay together until the day that Vickers returns and he leaves. It is soon afterward that he discovers that Tania is really the president of a major corporation. When he learns that she has been jailed for attempting to murder her creepy ex-husband, Vickers uses his clout to save her. The story then jumps to a newlywed couple happily struggling in a humble garret. Their lives change dramatically when a benefactor suddenly appears and provides them with a marvelous country house. They are also given a mute butler (Mastroianni) who answers their every beck and call. It doesn't take the couple long to figure out that the sinister valet (who actually owns the chateau) is quietly poisoning them. In terror they leave, but later he finds them and demands that they give him their baby daughter. He gives the child to Maria, Mateo's wife. Mastroianni's fourth persona, that of industrial magnate Luc Alamand then appears. He is in trouble when he learns that the wife, daughter, and sister he manufactured to impress potential clients are actually coming. The stress causes the sudden emergence of his other disparate personalities. Interestingly, though each live wildly different lives, they are clearly the same mild-mannered, self-effacing character. The comedy in the story works on wildly different levels with sight gags and puns running simultaneously with literary and cultural satire. Beneath it all runs a serious message about the destructiveness and confusion caused by trying to create a single European culture. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This humorous and peculiarly Italian movie is unlikely to have been released outside that country, largely because of the intricacies of its political references. Writer/producer/director/lead actor Nanni Moretti has filmed a semi-autobiographical story which combines the action in a rousing water polo championship game (the film's name, Palombella Rossa, refers to a water polo move) with the efforts of the team's amnesiac star player (Moretti) to remember his past. In particular, he wants to remember why he is a communist. As the story unfolds, references to well over 20 years of Italian communist history and infighting emerge. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Onetime campus radical Nanni Moretti (who also directed this film) renounces his past to become a priest. Returning to his home village, Moretti is appalled at the lack of religious reverence amongst the townsfolk. Unable to communicate with any of his old friends, who've all gleefully succumbed to the Deadly Sins, Moretti cannot even count on solace from his own family, a screwed-up aggregation which gives the word "dysfunctional" several new meanings. The priest finally gives up on the village and transfers to a parish far, far away. Despite the somber tone of the past few sentences, the Italian-filmed Mass Is Ended (Messa E' Finita) is actually a comedy, its humor stemming from the nonplussed reactions of Moretti and the believable performances of the supporting cast. The film won a special jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In scenes that can be read as fantasy, reality, or dreams - or somewhere in-between all three - the director and writer Nanni Moretti takes the viewers into his world: as a director fighting a flawed establishment, as an artist seeking a true expression of his visions, and as a neurotic, disturbed invidividual trying to cope. In many of the scenes, it is difficult to differentiate between the three, and may not matter in the long run because all three aspects are one person - Michele in the film, Moretti in real life. Lacing his scenes with witty asides about the film industry and its inhabitants, Moretti has Michele embattled with a crass, Neapolitan director making a musical about the 1968 student demonstrations. Michele gets into physical fights with his mother - and at the same time, has a creative block to finishing his film titled "Freud's Mother." The crazy characterization of Freud as a "momma's boy" in the film would have made anyone's mother run for psychotherapy. In the end, the viewer will have to put all the composite parts together to come to a conclusion about the meaning of this multi-level story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Based on an autobiographical book by Gavino Ledda, Padre Padrone is filmed in Sardinian, a regional Italian dialect. The film concentrates on a young, barely literate shepherd boy, who lives under the thumb of his tyrannical peasant father. Rescued from his family--and his isolated lifestyle--when called for military service, the boy eventually emerges as a brilliant scholar. Filmmakers Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani have always displayed an uncanny knack for perfectly capturing the manners, mores and thought processes of Southern Italy's working poor. Though the protagonist's father is clearly the villain of the piece, the Tavianis endeavor to understand and explain his point-of-view and the traditional values that have compelled him to treat his son so harshly. Filmed in a stark, straightforward fashion Padre Padrone went on to become the first film ever to win both the Golden Palm and the International Critics' Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Controversial Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berluscoi is just one of the targets of writer and director Nanni Moretti's satiric focus in this sharp comedy-drama. In the 1970's, Bruno (Silvio Orlando) was one of Italy's most daring and best-respected filmmakers, while his wife Paola (Margherita Buy) was a leading box-office star. However, come the new millennium, things are a whole lot different for Bruno -- Paola is divorcing him, his production company is on the verge of bankruptcy, and he can't get a new project off the ground. When Teresa (Jasmine Trinca), a young woman down on her luck, approaches Bruno with a script, he agrees to take on the project, even though he hasn't read it and doesn't know how he'll raise the money. Bruno discovers he's put himself in hot water when he reads the screenplay and discovers it's a frontal assault on Silvio Berluscoi that doesn't shy away from allegations of his connection to organized crime, tax evasion, bribery and influence peddling. While Italian firms won't dare touch the project, Bruno discovers a Polish financier (Jerzy Stuhr) who will put up the money, but under one condition -- Bruno has to persuade box-office idol Marco Pulici (Michele Placidio) to play Berluscoi. Il Caimano (aka The Caiman) received its North American premier at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi