“A wonderfully patient, delicately observed film; warm, generous, never for a moment sentimental or patronising, never exploiting dottiness and eccentricity.”
Phillip French
The Film Club you’ve come to love welcomes you back after the summer break with the kind of movie you just aint gonna get at VUE: a food-filled nonagenarian sleepover!
Described variously as “a warmly comic sweet-spirited gem of a film” and “Thoughtful, warm-hearted, and delightfully free of pretense”, the film’s 24-hour cycle takes place around the Ferragosto holiday on Aug. 15, when it is hot and bright and the Roman people have either emptied the city or retired indoors for a nice long nap. Middle-aged bachelor Gianni (played genially by the director) plans on a quiet holiday with his 97-year-old mother. Her demands, while not immoderate, are relentless, and Gianni is run ragged as her full-time caretaker. Now imagine that, the film supposes, with considerable mirth, times four: Gianni takes in three more senior-aged women for the Ferragosto holiday, Italian mamas dumped by adult children who want to go play.
“These women are marvelous, with ancient, creased faces and the kind of admirable fuck-all attitude that comes with age. I couldn’t take my eyes off them.”
Kimberley Jones