Mia Madre (2015)

"Mia Madre" is the sort of picture you might see being made in EuropeÂ…but it's far from the sort of movie you'd expect from Hollywood. After all, a film about a middle-aged woman who is nearing an emotional collapse is not big box office. And, it's certainly not the sort of picture the target audience of 16-30 would rush to the theaters to see. However, if you are patient and give it a chance, you're bound to get a lot out of this Italian film from director Nanni Moretti (who also co-wrote and co-stars in the movie).

When the story begins, Margherita (Margherita Bay) is having a very tough time in life. She's directing a movie, just separated from her husband and is dealing with her mother's impending death. To make things worse, the picture has an American star (John Turturro) who is having trouble delivering his lines in ItalianÂ…and Margherita is far from patient with the man. What follows is the progression of events in Margherita's lifeÂ…and the feeling that sooner or later, she's going to snap. After all, to make all this even worse she's middle-agedÂ…a time which is tough on all of usÂ…and a time of change. I should knowÂ…I am at that time in my life as well! And, I guess this is why I could relate to Margherita and her story so well.

While I wouldn't rush to the theaters to see a film like Mia Madre, it's perfect to see such a 'little' film at home on your television. It is not a sweeping saga and doesn't need the big screen treatmentÂ… which is great since the movie is new to Netflix this month. It also, incidentally, received a nearly eight minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film FestivalÂ…so I am apparently not the only one who liked it and recommend you see it!

Fmovies: Director Nanni Moretti often stars in his own movies, frequently playing what seems to be only a thinly fictionalised version of himself. In 'Mia Madre', however, he has two alter egos, as he plays the brother of a film director, the excellent Marghertia Buy, who's busy with work, even as their mother is dying. The film is both a sensistive portrait of how we deal with terminal illness, and a revealing, and often hilarious, look at the business of film-making. John Turturro is the difficult American star of the film-within-a-film; the humour lies in Buy's reactions to his outrageous behaviour. I quite like most of Moretti's movies; but I think this one is my favourite.

First of all, I'm a French speaking Indian living in France and I'm very passionate about cinema, I'm saying because I don't understand any Italian word in this film. I've just followed the film with the subtitles and I was speechless. The theme of the movie is something very unique and not everyone could held the megaphone easily other than Moretti. I liked very much the story, the screenplay, the lighting, the DOP, the cuts and everything... I liked so much the performance of The mother, the daughter and the son, the grand daughter, the actor. They were fabulous in each scene. They don't act but they react for the situation and so the film was very much realistic.

I would recommend this film for everybody! :) happy to see a good movie like this...

Mia Madre fmovies. Nanni Moretti is an accomplished filmmaker who won many awards as an actor, writer, director, producer across Europe for 4 decades, and a few in South America. He is a Cannes Film Festival favourite and won the 2015 Prize of the Ecumenical Jury with this fine film "Mia Madre" (aka My Mother) who was inspired partly by the recent death of his mother.

It was thus with immense pleasure that I was able to attend his TIFF first screening in his presence with an interpreter (even though his command of English is quite good especially understanding) and hear first hand a few details from the master.

First in terms of prizes, his 2001 film "La stanza del figlio" (aka The Son's Room) seems to be a contender for his masterpiece yet even though it is an extraordinary film, I can think of other films who dealt with the subject of losing a child much better, namely two in the same year with riveting "In the Bedroom" and even better Australian "Lantana", and later "Rabbit Hole (2010)" with Australian actress Nicole Kidman.

For "Mia Madre", we explore the dying and death of a parent but this time, this movie sets itself apart. It is dark and light with humour, showing scenes with conflicted and strong characters with multiple layers, exploring emotional and intellectual depth. It weaves between multiple layers of reality and meta-reality, time, thoughts, dreams, desires. It goes beyond death, before, in between... It is beautiful!

Moretti speaks of his inability to tell his actors to "be besides the character" (as opposed to being completely immersed in them) although that is what he would like to tell them. He feels too many acting awards go to people who become characters and lose themselves. He also mentions that he is closer to the distraught Margherita character (played by marvellous Margherita Buy who is a accomplished actress to say the least) than to the brother he plays in the film and wishes he had a better handle of the dying mother situation in real life. These small details show a level of maturity and complexity of thought with a crisp vision and appreciation. A non-assuming but assured wisdom can be felt from the man and the magnus opus I just saw.

Margherita's character is a director like Moretti so the piece is self-reflective in many ways and involves an interplay of many realities, possibilities and problems to deal with at the same time. Then he brings John Turturro to play the role of Barry Huggins who is a now barely able to remember a line actor of old fame and prestige with a sharp tongue and Hollywood arrogance. This creates some comic relief and hilarious scenes but also serve to contrast the work problems with the life problems and the miscommunication and misunderstanding of everyone.

The movie is a dream of sort, but a vivid one. Moretti's life distress gave us his Pièce de résistance.

Thank you for sharing. Thank you for caring.

Italy / France 2015 | 106 mins | Toronto International Film Festival | Italian (English subtitles) + some English

When was the last time you heard a great last line in a movie? So great it made you burst into tears? The final line in "Mia Madre" is not a brilliant sentence in itself. (Then again, is "rosebud" profound in itself?) But in context – the way it references an earlier conversation in the film, as well as sums up the theme of the movie, and most importantly creates a definitive and meaningful end to the story (and endings are always difficult, even for the best filmmakers), in that way, this was an enormously powerful and stirring end – probably the best final line to a movie that anyone will hear in this 53rd New York Film Festival. And it literally made me cry out loud.

Basically, this is a story about a woman whose mother is dying. But, don't imagine grim or depressing. Those Italians, they understand Sorrowful Life and Comical Death in ways that Americans just do not. It's like writer/director Nanni Moretti ("The Son's Room") is tapping into an ancient source of pure emotion. And he does it so gracefully. The film is gently, deeply astute. The lyricism in the language adds to the effect; Italian is such an elegant language. It's all part of this organic sensation that comes from the film – this gorgeous feeling that grows out of my stomach and blooms in my chest.

In conversation after the screening, Moretti actually says that he wants the audience to feel that the movie is digging inside of them. That's exactly what I felt. Or, I felt the movie carving into me. As I watched, I felt like I was being sculpted. I felt as if a great master, Michelangelo, was carefully cutting, chiseling into me, and so he – the sculptor, the director, the writer – is making us – the audience – into his magnificent carved creation. And in that way, Moretti is elevating us with his talent, his vision. He is making us sublime.

Except it really wasn't "us." It was just me alone and that movie. It was so intimate. I start off watching the movie from outside and thinking about it – thinking I will "review" it, and then I am in the movie. I am living it. It is living me. I am not audience observing a film; we are involved in each other in some palpable way. It's almost physical – like I can literally feel it touching me. It brings me to life in an odd way; I can feel my heart inside my body.

Of course, the death of a parent is a universal experience, but this film manages to make it feel uniquely personal. I feel as if this director has been watching me in my life, with my family, and is now explaining myself to me. Although, I suspect it's an explanation that will feel relevant or resonant to nearly every adult. Perhaps the film score helps me to feel so fully enthralled – a variety of music from Leonard Cohen, Philip Glass, Nino Rota, and Arvo Part.

Other critics may focus on the story that binds the film's emotions together. The lead character (played with glorious subtlety by Margherita Buy) is an Italian filmmaker who is shooting a movie while her mother is dying in a hospital. Actually, this is a semi- autobiographical film in that Mortetti had his mother die while he was shooting a previous film. However, I think that fact is more significant to the personal life of Moretti than to the body of this film; having an experience and elevating that experience to an art form are two very different things.

In this movie, the story functions to bring in the outside world and its pressing realities and co

Nanni Moretti has come a long way portraying Italy - mixing the inner, often neurotic, workings of a person with the harsh clash of Reality. In this movie, reality itself is the world of fiction: Margherita Buy plays the director of a movie about the working crisis that has been tearing apart Italy's employment situation for years now. The set is a stressful environment which recalls the one described by Truffaut's "Day for Night" and adds to the emotional exhaustion of the director Buy, facing her mother's illness. Whereas "The Son's Room" found its characters coming to terms with loss as a matter of fact, this movie rather deals with the whole painful process that leads to loss: the slow steps that lead to the acknowledgement of what is inevitable. The soul-wrenching hospital scenes and the numerous flashbacks from Buy's family memories are cleverly (and thankfully) counterbalanced with the comedic, hilarious traits of John Turturro, the main star or better even, a proper "diva", in Buy's (and subsequently, Moretti's) movie. You'll found yourself cracking up with laughter while that small tear on your cheek hasn't dried yet, and both moments are filmed in a superb way. Nanni Moretti himself plays a role as Margherita Buy's brother: both actors have a similar style and it's great to finally see them working together. They both speak in an extremely calm manner, as if they were trying to explain some really obvious truth to the viewers and to other characters; both have a history of playing awkward, sometimes neurotic, fragile people who will eventually burst out, only to quickly apologize in their usual calm and polite manner. Those who are familiar with Moretti's work will recognize some of his motifs: Rome settings, loud singing in cars, deadpan statements on the inability to work in a relationship, parental confrontations. Overall a very good movie that fits well in Moretti's recent history.