April

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.

Such a cleansed, ideologically perverse genre is incompatible with a) political conscience b) brains.

OK, we don't always want to "save the world" 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.

I feel he has the potential to be a great director, a "beacon" of intelligent but not haughty film-making. Like Woody Allen, for instance. (I saw Caro Diario twice on cinemas, in spite of his long "tempos" at "Islands"). Instead, he makes the jokes too long, overacts, is outright stupid when coming up with nonsense while "doing the documentary".

By the way, I'd LOVE a life in which "shooting a documentary" were "duty". I wonder what "pleasure" would have to be :)! The inclusion of his baby and family may serve his a purpose, but I found it irrelevant at best.

Overall, 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 "message".

I'm afraid he would rather take the "playful/ escapist" way. It is very common in people dedicated to "the arts" (even the most brilliant, like Woody). But very frustrating to "us, social scientists".

Whichever our "rank"!

Conclusion: "If I could", I would say to him THE SAME HE SAYS TO HIS political CANDIDATES when facing Berlusconi on TV: "React! Say something!"

A musical will never tell any moving human story, nor be beautiful.

Allen makes a GREAT missile/ pun on them in "Match Point" (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!

Whether mine or the movie's I'm not sure. In any case, when I saw this movie in Buenos Aires on its theatrical release, I was kind of disappointed. I'd seen _Caro Diario_ just a little earlier and thought that _Aprile_ lacked the freshness of the earlier movie. Plus, I found the stuff about Berlusconi and the elections kind of boring.

But after having seen most of Moretti's other movies, I took another look at _Aprile_ and realized that it's a wise and moving--if occasionally annoying--piece of work, after all. Certainly no less an achievement than _Caro Diario_ or _The Son's Room_. And if, like me, you've seen other Moretti movies, you realize that things that might seem incoherent on first viewing, such as musicals about dancing pastry chefs, are in fact long-time obsessions.

In his movies, Moretti's character is always surrounded by people: fellow leftists, old friends, family, parishioners, patients, and so on. But despite all these social ties, there's also a basic solitude that Moretti explores in his movies. I think that's why I like them.

Oh, and one more thing: he always makes Italy look gorgeous.

I anticipated this movie for so long, because of that awesome dancing chef. Then I watch it and he's introduced at the start, then is not seen for the rest of the movie until the very end. And only for one measly minute. And even then, it was worth it. Anyone who wants to see an absolute legend, hire this movie out, fast-forward the first hour and a half, then sit back and enjoy the dancing chef.

They should make a whole movie on him, like they fictionally do at the end of APRILE.

Two words- Dancing Chef!

This film is so beautiful in so many ways. It is simple without being sparse. It tugs on the heart strings - but it has none of that Oprah vomit. Sit back and enjoy a fun and hilarious film of Moretti's move into fatherhood. Love him for the bumbling klutz he is. Want to steal his baby.

Most filmmakers don't use themselves and their families in such a shamelessly autobiographical fashion as Nanni Moretti. You could call him brave or, if a detractor, perhaps just lazy. I mean, it must be easy to regurgitate your life on screen in a quasi-documentary fashion except that Moretti is one of the smartest and funniest filmmakers ever to have come out of Italy and the shamelessly autobiographical "Aprile" is a small gem, (it's only 75 minutes long).

Moretti himself plays a film director called Nanni, planning to shoot a musical but finds he can't while his wife, played by real-life wife Silvia Nono, is pregnant, so instead he chooses to make a documentary on the Italian elections. "Aprile" itself isn't a documentary but a very charming if hugely self-indulgent comedy on the director's life. It is, in its way, another "Dear Diary" with its tongue lodged firmly in its cheek. How you respond to it, of course, will depend on how you respond to Moretti. I love him and am happy to take almost anything he sends my way. He may be indulgent but he's certainly a lot funnier and more likeable than Roberto Benigni, (he's closer to being an Italian Woody Allen). When I wasn't laughing out loud, which was frequently, I had a permanent smile on my face. See this.