13dici a tavola (2004) Poster

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7/10
A sunny journey into a Tuscan villa peopled with very nice characters
davidtraversa-17 July 2008
I enjoyed this movie so much --I just saw it-- that I don't know where to start with my comment. Let's see, Italy --Tuscany-- very bright summer time, lots of green acres as far as the farthest horizon --the greenest of the greens-- flowers, lots of them and very colorful, the bluest possible sky, cloudless, the sea, with a rocky beach, the chirping of myriad birds in the background covered by more greenery.

What else..., beautiful young people, girls and boys --in Italy you can call a boy Bello (beautiful) and nobody will bat an eyelash, because if he's beautiful there's no hypocrisy about it, he's beautiful, period.

Anna (Kasia Smutniak) is so gorgeous, that when she's on the screen you don't see anything else --and she's plenty on the screen-- with a charisma quite difficult to surpass. As a matter of fact all the other girls, also quite beautiful, are painfully envious of her allure.

The villa, without being a luxurious one --is cozy, like an old family home, but that's the idea anyway-- is so paradisaical that one longs to enter the movie and inhabit the place for ever, away from the noisy world. Splendid vintage sport cars from the sixties. In this stunning place, Giulio (Giancarlo Giannini) recounts to us his life (he's now in his sixties) off camera and on, with long flashbacks where we see him as a young eighteen year old adolescent (Nicolas Vaporidis) and specially when he's off camera and we listen to his voice, we realize that he must have one of the most beautiful male voices we have ever heard.

Italy in the mid forties, when communists where so present in it's daily life, after the Second World War. Angela Finocchiaro (Pietra, Giulio's mother when young) is such a terrific actress!! she conveys all sorts of feelings just with a body posture, with a hand gesture, fantastic!

The movie is all about a first love, illusions, desires, the first kiss, the first sexual encounter, frustrations, disappointments, comings and goings. The transition between past (Giulio's memories) and the present is smoothly accomplished with expert editing in a way that makes you feel the nostalgia Giulio is experiencing with his remembrance of those bygone days.

An excellent decision of never showing Anna in the present leaves her in our mind lingering with her radiant beauty of her magnificent twenty years of youth.

I don't get it why there are no comments previous to mine.

I think it's a delightful movie that will leave you with a delicious feeling --it's a very light comedy-- specially because there are no horrendous decapitations, throat slicing, Hara-Kiri or impressive car explosions while somebody runs around like a human torch screaming like hell.

Very pleasant movie, a reunion of average people in average days, doing what everybody does within a regular family. The end is so nicely thought out as a final knot for the story that maybe, because unexpected, is the seal that leaves the imprint of pleasantness to the whole experience.

It also helps a lot the old fashioned 60s pop Italian songs that accompany the scenes of young Giulio.

My warning for 'spoiler' only was set for the viewer that will see this movie hoping to see some rape scene or blood pouring out of the screen into his living room, because in that case he'll be terribly disappointed.
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7/10
Our home in Tuscany
jotix10030 July 2010
Warning: Spoilers
The love for an ancestral home in the gorgeous countryside of Tuscany is at the center of this sunny Italian comedy. Giulio, the youngest of the children of the Colonel and Piera was born in the big house, and unlike his siblings, his love of the place comes with the happy memories he has kept throughout his life, especially that summer in which first experienced love and became a man.

As with a lot of large families, summers were spent at the ancestral home, where all the children gathered for a carefree time. The particular summer in the early 1960s come back to haunt the present day Giulio, who is loath to sell the property, even though hardly anyone ever goes to spend some time in it. That summer in his memory is all about Anna, a beautiful young woman that is his family's guest. Anna is the object of desire from all of the young men vacationing in the villa.

Giulio realizes he has no chance to win Anna's affections. At the same time Anna sees in the young man a kind soul that is different from his brothers and cousins. A game of poker among the boys, gives them an idea: how about placing the funds to reward the one that will first have a chance with the girl. Anna, as it turns out, is way ahead of all of them.

Enrico Oldoini, the writer and director of this delightful comedy, created such a pleasant atmosphere in which to set his story that he captures the audience's attention in the way the story is told from Giulio forty years apart. The countryside around the villa is in one of the most picturesque part of Tuscany, something that adds another layer to the film, where the cinematographer Alessandro Grossi's camera takes us to places like Casteglioncello and Livorno to show it in all its summery splendor.

Nicolas Vaporidis makes a perfect younger Giulio, while Giancarlo Giannini plays the older man. Both are great assets for the director. Kasia Smutniak plays the beautiful Anna with ease. The large supporting cast is excellent.

This is a nostalgic film that will not disappoint because of the loving work of Enrico Oldoini.
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7/10
Great movie to relax to!
farfalla-9806522 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is great and has a great cast of characters. You can really feel the love between the family in every scene they are in together. They story line keeps you interested and Giulio is a character that you really root for to win the girl. Giulio is gentleman in the middle of selling his family's villa in Tuscany. He takes his daughter there and recalls the summer he met his love Anna. He and his brothers and cousins vie for Anna's love and place a bet on who will win.

Watching the teenage boys fall all over themselves to gain the affection of a pretty girl is funny. One is too over-zealous, another already has a girlfriend and one blows it because Anna finds out about the bet. It was sad to see Giulio leave the villa because of his heart break of not winning Anna over, but then you cheer to see that they end up together. The movie could easily be billed as what we would call a rom-com. Giulio is re-telling stories of that faithful summer to his daughter and you can see how, through his memories, he starts to realize what the house means to him. This is definitely something to watch on a relaxing Sunday with some good snacks!
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