Tommi, 11 years old, lives with his older sister Viola and his father Renato. At the beginning of the film we don't know where Stefania, their mother, is; but she appears again, and, even we came to know that in the past she hasn't been able to stay in the family and grow up her children, this time it seems she came to stay. Viola is happy, Tommi is more skeptical. Time will tell who was right. "Libero" is a defensive soccer player who doesn't have a specific opponent; Tommi, who is a very good swimmer but doesn't like to swim, at the end of the film says "Anche libero va bene" ("Even libero is OK"), when finally his father agrees to send him to a soccer school, even he'd better be a midfielder. This is a difficult film, dealing with the over-discussed family subject in an ordinary, but still very different way, aided by a superb interpretation of all the four leading characters, with a special mention for the first-time-on-screen Alessandro Morace as Tommi. Barbora Bobulova could be the best Italian actress if she was born in Italy (but we adopt her with great pleasure), and Kim Rossi Stuart, for his debut as director, is also convincing as Renato, even if he had to substitute at the last moment Sergio Rubini, who was the original choice. Probably the best Italian film of 2006.
Reviews
2 Reviews
Musikanten
(2005)
White flag.
30 August 2006
While two TV writers are trying to start a new program, one of them (Sonia Bergamasco) somehow finds herself (or, more correctly, himself; there has been a change of sex in the meantime) in 1826, gravitating around Ludwig van Beethoven, the great composer (Alejandro Jodorowski in a strange cast choice). In his masterpiece as a singer/composer, "La voce del padrone", there was a song, "Bandiera bianca", where Battiato told us "A Beethoven e Sinatra preferisco l'insalata" ("Salad is better than Beethoven and Sinatra"). We can just hope: a) that his next film will talk about salad: it will be surely more interesting than this incredible mess. b) that his next film will never see the light: the second effort of two of the more successful Italian singers (the other is Ligabue), after a very promising debut as directors (with an aid of someone else?), is something we are not going to forget, and that's not said in a positive way. Anyway, Antonio Rezza almost saves the film in a short cameo role. Watch this at your peril.
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