Moretti’s Mia Madre

Film directors are usually control freaks. It just goes with the territory. That’s great for their auteurist visions, but not so hot for personal relationships. Margherita’s mother still loves her anyway, even in periods of ill health and maybe not quite 100% sound mind. The headstrong daughter should probably start preparing for the inevitable, but she has a didactic art film to finish first in Nanni Moretti’s Mia Madre (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Vittorio was the closest thing Margherita had to a muse, but that did not stop her from dumping him midway through their latest shoot. Barry Huggins, a famous American character actor supposedly fluent in Italian will soon be joining the production, but he most definitely will not be taking Vittorio’s place. Frankly, she is far too preoccupied with her mother Ada’s health, but so far she has left most of the hard work to her older brother Giovanni. She is also trying to be a reasonably responsible mother to her Latin-flunking, Vespa-yearning daughter Livia, but it does not come natural to her.

Unfortunately, developments on the set push Margherita to the verge of a nervous breakdown. The high maintenance Huggins might understand Italian, but his fluency is iffy and his memorization of lines is even more suspect. Plus, just about every technical problem imaginable threatens to rob the world of another overwrought melodrama about unionized strikers.

Mia Madre’s acute attention to personal crises definitely makes it feel like a Nanni Moretti film, but it is hard not to hear Georges Delerue’s soaring themes from Truffaut’s Day for Night welling up in the back of your head. Considering the ways the two films parallel each other (socially awkward, semi-autobiographical filmmakers whose sanity and latest productions are nearly undermined by untimely tragedy), it is hard to imagine Moretti wasn’t engaging with the Oscar winner on some level.

Be that as it may, Mia Madre is a fine work with an unusually high quotient of emotional truth. Margherita Buy takes another slyly subtle star turn as Margherita the namesake director, proving she is one of the best in the business. John Turturro is quite a good sport hamming it up as Huggins (who else could he be lampooning, but himself?), yet when we least expect it, he and Moretti will irreversibly humanize the Yankee prima donna. Moretti the helmer-thesp (who has not infrequently been cast in other people’s movies) oozes dignity as the wise, soul-weary Giovanni. He just can’t help being charismatic on-screen. However, Giulia Lazzarini is doing standard TV movie-central casting stuff as the spirited but slowly fading Ada.

Mia Madre is a very nice film, but Day for Night is a masterwork. That is an unfair comparison, but Moretti seems to invite it. Nevertheless, Buy follows up her wonderfully understated turn in the grossly underappreciated A Five Star Life with another notably smart and mature performance. Recommended for patrons of Italian cinema and fans of Turturro, Mia Madre opens this Friday (8/26) in New York, at the Lincoln Plaza uptown and the Angelika Film Center downtown.

A Five Star Life: Luxury for One

Irene Lorenzi is used to ordering soup for one—and she expects it served at a very specific temperature. It is not that she is too high maintenance to even find a dinner partner. It is her job. Lorenzi is the mystery guest five star hotels dread. It is not the worst lot in life to draw, but it often a solitary one, leading to a mild mid-life crisis in Maria Sole Tognazzi’s elegant dramedic bauble, A Five Star Life (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Lorenzi largely lives out of her suitcase, putting five star hotels through a rigorous secret inspection process. When she returns home, she catches up with her sister Silvia and beloved nieces as best she can. She also tries to touch base with Andrea, her former lover who is now her platonic (and only) friend. Like Lorenzi, he also has a hip job, but at least managing an organic food coop keeps him down with the people—the Volvo-driving people. That is how he met Fabiana, a one-night stand turned pregnant girlfriend. He might just be ready to commit to marriage and fatherhood, causing Lorenzi to re-examine her own life.

Fear not, Five Star is far too smart for angst-ridden soul-searching. Despite all her misgivings, Lorenzi still enjoys her job. It also often serves as a convenient escape hatch whenever things start to get too real with Silvia and Andrea. Yet, all the lavish service makes it difficult to forge human connections. Indeed, Tognazzi’s screenplay, co-written by Ivan Cotroneo and Francesca Marciano, presents a social critique of the opulent lifestyle rather than a political-ideological indictment (at least that is how it plays on screen, regardless of their intent).

Frankly, part of the inescapably appeal of Five Star are the highly cinematic resorts Lorenzi inspects in exotic locales such as Marrakesh and Tuscany. There is no question there is a fair amount of luxury porn going on here. Nevertheless, it presents a unique take on a professional woman, wrestling with her life choices.

Given the focus on Lorenzi, the film largely rests on the shoulders of Margherita Buy, who won Italy’s equivalent of the Oscars for her lead performance. Smart, sophisticated, and reserved, she comes across like an Italian Cécile de France, which is not a bad thing. She certainly has the right look and mature substance to be a credible connoisseur of the best of the finest. The subtlety with which she reveals Lorenzi’s insecurities is also quite effective.

Five Star is undeniably narrow in scope, but it is nimbly sure-footed, giving viewers an intimate peak into a well structured but unusual life. There is definitely very real drama at its core, but Tognazzi allows viewers plenty of time to revel in the rarified surroundings, which sparkle in cinematographer Arnaldo Catinari’s lens. It is all quite satisfying, like room service soup served at the proper temperature. Recommended for fans of Italian cinema and those who enjoy gawking at exclusive locales, A Five Star Life opens this Friday (7/18) in New York at the Paris Theatre.