Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

greenylennon "Caterina va in città" has the quality every great Italian masterpiece has: every time you watch it, you discover a topic you hadn't noticed before and you never get tired of his funny sequences, mainly because from those scenes you draw the conclusions about what this film wanted to communicate."Caterina va in città" can count on some of the best current Italian actors: Sergio Castellitto and Margherita Buy, who play Caterina's parents, share a perfect chemistry. You can believe they are a married couple since more than ten years in this film, and you can't do anything but appreciate the aristocratic Mrs Buy finally playing a bungler, mind-absent, but loving and a bit boor Italian mummy. You can't argue about Castellitto: the things his character says are sadly true in Italy nowadays. The beginner Alice Teghil is the ideal choice for the sweet Caterina: her innocent and deep eyes speak more than a thousand word. She's the only pure character in the whole film and you feel there's still justice in this world, when, in the closing scene, we see her singing happy and free in the National Academy of Santa Cecilia's choir. There're other remarkable performances: Federica Sbrenna (Daniela Germano), Carolina Iaquaniello (Margherita Rossi Chaillet), for example, and also Claudio Amendola (Daniela's father), Flavio Bucci and Galatea Ranzi (Margherita's parents). Behind the camera there's Paolo Virzì, one of the most sharp and smart directors in Italy.I lived a situation similar to Caterina's two years ago, and, because of this heaven-sent film, I understood a lot of things and finally resolved that annoying problem. That's way I owe my happiness and my inner peace to this film. Thanks, thanks, and still thanks, Caterina.

arzewski Was impressed with the locations that the film makers chose film the externals.The school "Luchino Visconti" is THE school that the roman elite has traditionally placed their kids. The curriculum here is pretty heavy in ancient Greek and Latin texts.The town of Montalto Di Castro, shown in the beginning and the end. BTW, it is not in Tuscany, as many other commenter's claim, but still in the region of Lazio. The beach scene at the end shows a huge power plant in the background. That is a nuclear energy plant, and saying you are from Montalto Di Castro is synonymous to saying you are from Three Mile Island or Chernobyl. The folks there are on the front line should there be a radiation leak.The run-down Tuscan-looking farmhouse where Margherita's father is living his second, and already struggling, marriage. Stereotypical living quarters of washed-down intellectuals.The town of Sabbaudia, where Daniela's father travels to to attend a wedding. It was entirely built by Mussolini in the 1930's. Thus the obvious reference to its past with the group singing of a fascist song, "Inno Dei Giovani Fascisti". Text of the song is:"Popol Di Destra, Che Forte Adempie E Rompe Con Ali E Fiamme, La Giovinezza Va. Fiaccole Ardenti Sull'Are, Sulle Tombe Noi Siamo Le Speranze Della Nuova Età. Duce, Duce, Chi Non Saprà Morir? Il Giuramento Chi Mai Rinnegherà? Nuda La Spada Quando Tu La Vuoi Gagliardetti Al Vento, Tutti Verranno A Te Armi, Bandiere Degli Antichi Eroi Per L'Italia, O Duce, Fa Balenare Al Sol Va, La Vita Va Così Ci Porta E Ci Promette L'Avvenir Una Vasta Gioventù Con Romana Volontà, Combatterà. Verrà, Quel Dì Verrà, Che La Gran Madre Degli Eroi Ci Chiamerà Per Il Duce, O Patria Per Il Re Noi Griderem Gloria E Impero D'Oltremar. "And it is here that one of the most interesting storyline techniques is made: with the wedding party singing the fascist song, suddenly the storyline jumps forward to the future, showing Daniela's father in a car riding back to Rome, and commenting on the day's event, with short clips of the (past) wedding party and fascist song singing, then back to the future, then back to the past. He makes the point that he "knows these people well" and that it is his "responsibility to guide the Nation forward". So, although of the evident right-wing background, it is revealed that he is, after all, a politician with a conscience.A similar ploy of storyline and imagery injection is done with the clip of Caterina's father crying along with the crying of Gianfilippo (tentative boyfriend).The only location that doesn't mesh well is the Monte Dei Cocci in Testaccio, with a cross on top of a hill overlooking the city. The area is fenced, trespassing not allowed, and enforced. But then, it is accurate again, as only the grungy Margherita could think of going there, since the area has traditionally been known for squatters, gypsies, and an alternative music school.BTW, the choice of using the character of the Australian kid, Edward, is a good one. Being from such a far away land, he is shown to be someone that can make an unspoiled and objective point-of-view (literally, from his soap-opera revealing bedroom window view). And from reading the blogs in Italy, it seems that all the teenage girls in Italy are all in love with him.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre I saw 'Caterina va in Città' in Sydney, where the audience had mixed reactions to the schoolboy who speaks Italian with what's apparently meant to be a Sydneysider accent. In general, I was impressed by the ensemble acting, but I felt that the best performance was given by Margherita Buy as the heroine's mother Agata. I was disappointed that Agata has so little to do with the main plot of the film.The symbolism is just a trifle heavy-handed in this movie. Remember those Hollywood war movies from World War Two, in which the bomber crew conveniently had one member of every (white) ethnic group? (And there was usually one rich guy and one guy from the slums.) Well, director/co-scriptwriter Paolo Virzi has got that gimmick here, Italian style. When 15-year-old Caterina's parents move house from a Tuscan seaside town to Rome and enrol her in a big-city school, the student body conveniently includes the full spectrum of Italy's national archetypes. For example, Daniela is wealthy, beautiful and popular, the daughter of an official in the right-wing government. Margherita is a left-wing 'revolutionary', the daughter of a famous intellectual. Of course, the film implies that Margherita is somehow better and more 'authentic' than Daniela.Because I found the political subplots of this movie to be deeply clichéd -- especially since Italy is in no position to lecture any other nation on the subject of politics -- I was pleased that the film's political content stays firmly secondary. The main story of this movie is, rightly, Caterina's uneasy and awkward progress through adolescence and into adulthood. It's no surprise to discover that being a teenage girl in modern Italy is difficult, but surely every adolescent -- male, female, rich, poor, in any century or culture -- has found adolescence to be a difficult time of transition. Except for some of its political comments, I found this to be a very honest and intelligent film, with characters I really cared about. I'll rate 'Caterina va in Città' 8 out of 10, and I look forward to more films from Paolo Virzi. Brava, Caterina!

picouli I think Virzì is one of the most interesting director in Italy, at the present moment. His ability to portray the current Italian society is quite good, and he achieves this either with *characters* (the two families in "Ferie d'Agosto", the father in "Caterina va in città") and with *stories* (the story of "Ovosodo", a bit of an Italian "It's a wonderful life"... just a bit, obviously... :-)."Caterina va in città" is a good movie: the idea of showing chunks of the Italian society and habits through the eyes of an innocent teenager gives the movie a "fairy tale" twist that makes it really "light" and enjoyable. I also liked the mom's character, played by a really good and beautiful Margherita Buy: in general, I appreciated Virzì's idea that the "good" part of society is based on the strength of women, as all male characters in this movie either are donquixotesque losers or spoiled and arrogant over-grown babies.But, as for most of his movies, I think the same criticism again apply: Virzì is openly a left-wing director, but he stresses this a bit too much and sometimes its works sound too "ideological": art should make you think, not tell you what to think, I guess. In addiction, some characters are too stereotypical and don't come out of a really deep psychological analysis. Still, I think he is currently the director who knows best how to take on the screen what goes on in Italy.In conclusion, I think this movie - just like "Ovosodo" - is based on a simple yet powerful assumption: that happiness is the disease of the idiots...