My Mother

Moretti tells a heart-wrenching story without using overly dramatic tones, and builds around it other story lines, which all share the theme of people coming to terms with reality. The main storyline is really moving and real, and I could totally relate to it - what I like about this film is that it is autobiographical, but you do not need to be a world-famous film director to relate to it. Through Margherita, Moretti at times will fearlessly show you the everyday routine details of both his professional and personal life, totally demystifying his world-famous-film-director persona. I really liked Margherita Buy's acting; John Turturro has a very difficult role to play, because he must continually switch between acting and meta-acting, also switching between English and Italian, but he pulls it off nicely. The last 10 seconds of this movie are the perfect ending.

Nanni Moretti may not be everybody's cup of tea, but his relevance cannot be denied. Very few artists has been so constantly present, so honestly faithful to themselves, and at the same time so careful in portraying the evolution of Italian society in the last decades. You put together the twelve movies Moretti has done in his forty years of activity and you get a perfect course in history of this country. It is not strange, then, that his latest movie looks like an attempt to portray confusion and uncertainty. As almost always, the story is based on personal experience from Moretti. In the past he has made movies about growing up and getting older (Caro Diario), movies about having a son (Aprile), and now he is sharing with the audience his reflections about the recent loss of his mother, frequently mentioned – and, once, even featured – in his works.

The story is about a director trying to complete a movie set in the contemporary scenario of economic crisis, focused on the loss of jobs in an Italian factory after the purchase of the compound from a USA investor. But the director cannot concentrate on the movie, as her old mother is dying in a hospital. There is a big difference between the main story (the death of the mother), which is told in a solemn and painfully slow way, and the story in the story (the script of the director's movie), whose lines and situations are formulaic, simple to the edge of stupidity ("Shit", as John Turturro says honestly in a moment of rage). Losing your mother is something that everybody's know is coming, sooner or later, but this doesn't mean you can be prepared: and in front of this terribly huge moment, everything else seems silly and preposterous.

The overall acting effort is really something to appreciate: Margherita Buy provides a complex, troubled counterpart for Moretti, who has limited himself to a supporting – yet important – role. John Turturro is the bright spot of the story: most of the situations where he is involved are really funny (neurotic Turturro and anxious Margherita Buy are a comedy duo with potential). Giulia Lazzarini portrays the sick mother, her energies slowly fading, with sensibility and measure: a really moving performance. She is by far the emotional centerpiece of the whole movie: in a story where everybody else seems willing to quit everything (relationships, day jobs, movie careers) for lack of meaning, the frail and weakened character of the mother, still willing to teach Latin to his niece until her very last moment and breath, actually teaches through the deep relationships she has with her family, and even with her former students, the surprising strength of human boundaries and love.

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.

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

The Italian movie Mia Madre (2015) was shown in the U.S. with its original title. It was co-written and directed by Nanni Moretti. It stars Margherita Buy as movie director Margherita. Margherita is directing a film in which noted U.S. actor Barry Huggins (John Turturro) is the protagonist. Margherita's mother Ada is portrayed by Giulia Lazzarina. Director Moretti has cast himself in the supporting role of Giovanni, Margherita's brother.

Margherita has problems that come from many directions. Her mother is dying--that's really the crux of the plot. She and her brother do their best for her, but it's a slow, downhill battle.

Margherita breaks up with a long-time lover, her daughter from her marriage is having trouble in school, and Barry Huggins is a self-centered jerk. Huggins is a star, and he acts like one. (In the movie, he speaks Italian well, which may be true in real life as well.) I got the sense in the movie that he was a celebrity, but not as great a celebrity as he would like to be. In any event, he is making Margherita's life miserable.

Margherita can't just drop everything to be with her mother. She has a film to direct, and it's not going well. She's in an impossible bind.

Director Moretti gave himself an important supporting role. In fact, the one fault I found with Mia Madre was that Moretti has a long scene with his boss that makes no sense in the context of the film. However, that small self-indulgence is negligible compared to all the great moments Moretti gives us.

Turturro is brilliant. His job is to make everyone--including the audience--dislike him. He does that wonderfully. Margherita Buy is an absolutely brilliant actor. Her emotions are at the surface, and her face portrays each emotion with unbelievable precision. She is the Italian Meryl Streep . (Or Meryl Streep is the American Margherita Buy.) Even if this weren't a great movie, it would be worth seeing just to watch Margherita Buy act. However, it truly is a great movie, and I highly recommend it.

This is one of the rare films that shows three generations of women, all of whom are strong and intelligent. That's another reason to watch Mia Madre.

We saw this film at the acclaimed Dryden Theatre in the George Eastman Museum in Rochester. I don't know if it will go into general release. It's certainly worth seeking out. (Every movie is better seen on the large screen than the small screen, but Mia Madre will work well on a small screen.)

For reasons I don't understand, Mia Madre has a modest 6.9 IMDb rating. This is one of those situations where I say, "Did those people see the same movie I saw?" Find it, watch it, and then judge for yourself.