Aprile (1998)

Aprile: Directed by Nanni Moretti. With Nanni Moretti, Silvio Orlando, Silvia Nono, Pietro Moretti. Nanni Moretti takes a comic look at the ebbs and flows of his life as he becomes a father for the first time. He struggles with distractions while trying to make a documentary of the Italian national elections.

“First of all I must admit I like all things Italian. Consequently, I laughed a lot, was moved, and obviously felt identified with the protagonist, director, factotum Moretti. But overall I felt this film was a political disappointment. If he were truly a political man, he could NEVER turn into musicals! Period.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSuch a cleansed, ideologically perverse genre is incompatible with a) political conscience b) brains.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOK, we donu0026#39;t always want to u0026quot;save the worldu0026quot; or discuss hefty topics (like French cinema), but I find musicals a distasteful, tacky aesthetic option. That is why I felt so disappointed with Nanni. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI feel he has the potential to be a great director, a u0026quot;beaconu0026quot; of intelligent but not haughty film-making. Like Woody Allen, for instance. (I saw Caro Diario twice on cinemas, in spite of his long u0026quot;temposu0026quot; at u0026quot;Islandsu0026quot;). Instead, he makes the jokes too long, overacts, is outright stupid when coming up with nonsense while u0026quot;doing the documentaryu0026quot;. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBy the way, Iu0026#39;d LOVE a life in which u0026quot;shooting a documentaryu0026quot; were u0026quot;dutyu0026quot;. I wonder what u0026quot;pleasureu0026quot; would have to be :)! The inclusion of his baby and family may serve his a purpose, but I found it irrelevant at best. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, I would like him to be the powerful director who could shoot this scene with the ship full of Albanians and piano music, touching without pounding a u0026quot;messageu0026quot;. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIu0026#39;m afraid he would rather take the u0026quot;playful/ escapistu0026quot; way. It is very common in people dedicated to u0026quot;the artsu0026quot; (even the most brilliant, like Woody). But very frustrating to u0026quot;us, social scientistsu0026quot;. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhichever our u0026quot;ranku0026quot;! u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eConclusion: u0026quot;If I couldu0026quot;, I would say to him THE SAME HE SAYS TO HIS political CANDIDATES when facing Berlusconi on TV: u0026quot;React! Say something!u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA musical will never tell any moving human story, nor be beautiful.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAllen makes a GREAT missile/ pun on them in u0026quot;Match Pointu0026quot; (when the silly wife loves them, and the couple goes just after he misbehave a bit . He deems them SO irrelevant you only hear it for a second :). THAT is intelligent cinema!”