Il testimone dello sposo

This film has so much going for it--exquisite art direction, beautiful costumes, wonderful cinematography, and a loving and meticulous attention to detail in depicting a turn of the century (1900) wedding in a small Italian town--that I would rate it higher but for the somewhat implausible screenplay.

Without giving plot details away, suffice it to say that the film begins with an interesting premise as it explores the betrothal rituals of this particular time and place that reduced women to objects essentially bartered away to the highest bidder. The heroine of the story, played by the absolutely exquisite Ines Sastre, rebels on her arranged-marriage wedding day, and the plot continues from there.

Diego Abatantuono, no slouch himself in the looks department, plays a long absent stranger who, having made his fortune in America, returns to the town and ends up participating in the ceremony. Things get more complicated from there.

Both actors are outstanding in their roles, but in the end a willing suspension of disbelief is needed to accept the film's conclusion. However, the visuals are so stunning, the period detail is so layered, and the principal actors (as well as the those who play the townspeople, all given their moments) are so fascinating to watch that almost all is forgiven.

The setting is in a small Italian town on the last day of the 19th century. This is the wedding day for a beautiful 22 year old maid who dreams of love even on the day she is to wed by an arranged marriage for which she is repelled. There is an American who is to be the best man who grew up in this small town but has become wealthy in America. She falls in love with him on first sight. The acting couldn't be better and there is exquisite details to the wedding and New Year preparations. Sensitive and beautifully photographed, this shouldn't be missed by anyone who has a romantic bone in their body.

I viewed The Best Man as a laserdisc, with Italian dialogue and English subtitles.

The story is drenched in century-old Italian culture, which is of much intrinsic interest to me. Cinematography, costumes and sets were high quality, down to the matched horses pulling the carriages. The plot is basically a romantic comedy, with few surprises. The majority of the movie takes place on New Year's Eve, 1899. The movie's focus was on the cultural shift of those times, away from the 19th century tradition of `arranged' marriages. The central character, Francesca Babini, rebels at her parent's choice of an arranged spouse. Her parents pressure her to go through with the marriage and succeed only in creating a disaster. The ending is a triumph for the modern, 20th century view of romantic love. I would recommend this movie both for those interested in historical Italian culture, and those looking for a good `date' movie.

I didn't see any profanity, nudity or violence that would merit the movie's `R' rating.

Hopeful that the New Italian Cinema produced another little gem in its 90's renaissance, went to see this motion picture with high expectations. While the costumes and indoor settings were marvelous, the rest was disappointing.

Some of the dialogues made little sense, or were artificially forced on the actor's mouth. The acting didn't see spontaneous, and some of the characters just seemed to make little sense. Another big disappointment was the dubbing of dialogues that clearly didn't follow the actor's lips: listening to mono-tone reading of dialogue text, and watching the lips simply not sinchronized to the listened voice, just makes this movie a turn-off. This movie reminded me of some of the made-for-TV productions of RAI-TV that catered to a domestic forced-fed audience when RAI was the only TV station in the entire country twenty years ago, and the audience had no other choice but to watch the only show in town. In its defense, there were some interesting moments in the plot, like the slide show shown to the italian audience, of pictures of America. But at the end, this movie was like reading a book whose turn-paging incentive is to find out when things were finally happening, only to find out at the end that the climatic moment never happened. Very anti-climatic.

Two of the three previous squibs here are negative. Ignore 'em. This film is delectable-- showed it to a roomful of old/young relatives Christmas night, and they all were delighted (while arguing with a pat ending). Huge cast-- more than 40 speaking characters, nearly all distinct and well-acted. Reminiscent of Visconti's THE LEOPARD, its art direction and costumes make for a lovely evocation of provincial Italy wedding, everyone in their best, on Dec. 31, 1899 (a good reason for rushing out to rent it right now). Most interesting as a compendium of folk rituals surrounding weddings in late nineteenth century, some familiar and a few bizarre. The film would be worth seeing for that alone-- but watch for the delicacy of the hero's interactions with the several women who pursue him, or the two beautiful group scenes over the wedding gifts.