He lives in Trapani in the far west of Sicily and undertakes to look up all his five children around Italy to find out how they really are. It develops into an odyssey of constantly overwhelming human experiences, as his insight into his children's lives keeps opening up ever widening abysses. Marcello Mastroianni makes perhaps the greatest performance of his life, and he is curiously and appropriately matched with Michele Morgan in her last performance - this episode is brief but provides an oasis of refreshing relief in this heart-rending but magnificent story reaching in spite of all some very harmonising conclusion. The real underlying story is told in brief flashes of hints of understatements, and like Mastroianni you'll have nio idea of what it is all about until he finally has his children for a lunch in Rome, which was all he wanted but which did not turn out as he had imagined. Take care of this film, you will be in for revolting experiences that will not run off.
