SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Tockinit not horrible nor great

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

secondtake Days and Clouds (2007)Tender, true, and rather moving without being the slightest bit sentimental. This is a look at normal life, in a way, in modern Northern Italy (the setting is Genoa). A fairly comfortable middle aged couple is going through a crisis as one loses a job and the money crunch adds to other everyday stresses.And that's it. Which is a lot when you realize that that's it. There will be no murder or shocking accidents, no illness or surprise turn of events of any kind, really. Which is why it draws you further and further, gently, with more humor than pathos, until you really believe these people, or these kind of people, exist quite like this. It's not a random slice of life, since there is certainly a core problem being scrutinized (the loss of a job in mid-life, etc.). But in many ways the little events are so "little" in the cinematic sense they are just a small pageant for the viewer.So what makes it sing beyond the compelling, restrained story is the acting, above all the acting. The couple, the husband and wife facing the crisis, makes sense because the woman (Margherita Buy) and the man (Antonio Albanese) are so perfect at being imperfect. They don't push their crisis too hard, nor do that have the ideal love at the beginning. What they show is the normal troubled tenderness and awkward anger of getting into such a situation.Besides a second thread following somewhat their daughter's life, which has taken a less materialistic turn then the parents, the movie adds a whole other element throughout--early Renaissance art. The mother happens to have just finished (belatedly) her graduate degree in Italian art from the 1400s. And she is helping restore an obscure small ceiling painting somewhere else in town, seeing it gradually reveal itself as the movie progresses. The reason this matters is it adds an element of beauty and idealism that is implied by the whole rest of the movie. That we (all of us) are not simply here to make ends meet and worry about money. And this something bigger (call it art, call it something spiritual inspired by art or inspiring art) is what holds us up at times.So by the end the two aspects--the mundane and the ethereal--meld, every so softly. Quite beautiful.

tetractys Ah, this movie -- came at the end of a long depressing string of the worst of the above. I had gone through the good stuff already and was well into the desperate search for therapeutic diversion. But I kept looking at one awful two-hour stretch of dreck after another. Crank, and Duplicity, and worst of all Surveillance were just making me feel sick or tired or both -- sick and tired. Then I took a chance on one of those movies with a single box on the Blockbuster shelf. It had the usual ivy garland decoration that meant it had at least shown in some festival or other.I was reluctant to make the effort to view something at the end of a long engineering workday that required me to put my good glasses on and read subtitles and get into the rhythms and melodies of Italian. I'm accustomed to Spanish and French, Japanese, Chinese, but Italian? Did I really want to go there? I am so glad I did.This movie reminds me of the French relationship movie from the 70s, "Cousin, Cousine." It's an understated but starkly realistic look at two married people rediscovering their meaning to each other after a sudden dramatic change in their circumstance. The man, something of a schlub, has lost his job -- forced out a company he co-founded. He is accustomed to being the boss and being powerful, and now he's nothing.Even in his family dynamic, with his daughter especially, he tries to remain in control and be tough. His beautiful and brilliant wife has just earned an advanced degree in art history and is involved in a major project of her own devising. But it doesn't pay the bills, and she must forgo this work to take a job at a call center, with a second job at night as secretary in a shipping office while the staff clerk has a baby. She disappears from her friendships out of embarrassment. They move from a house to a dingy flat in a city complex. He takes a series of crummy temp jobs.How these two adapt is the movie.Like I say, what movies should be. No guns. No chase. No 'splosions. No car wrecks. No artificial crises involving machines or villains or weapons. But there are intense moments between family members that will make the hair stand up on your neck. There is emotional pain and people reacting in ways that you will recognize -- withdrawal, anger, paralysis, escape. There are touching moments that come from very ordinary actions, like offering a bottle of wine, commenting on the morning brioche, or calling someone and leaving a voicemail message.The two last sentences of the movie, spoken by the man and woman while lying on a floor looking up at a ceiling, are perfect.

jotix100 Elsa, a woman of a certain age, has been completing her thesis about a minor painter whose work she has been helping to restore. The jury hearing her dissertation is clearly pleased with her findings. Elsa, who is apparently happily married to Michele, an apparent successful executive, is in for a surprise when she gets home. Michele has prepared a party without her knowledge. What Elsa is not ready is for the news she is about to receive from her husband after the festivity is over.Michele has been out of work for a couple of months. Their upper middle class status is about to crash because they have nothing saved for times like the one they are about to face. Michele, who learns about a position in a lower salaried position, wants to give it a try, but Elsa, thinking their situation is only temporary, feels something better is about to happen sooner, rather than later.Elsa is furious when Michale confesses. Why go along with a deception they cannot afford. When reality sets in, she decides to apply for a telemarketing position selling creams to bored housewives on the phone. Michele, on the other hand, has no leads, or prospects in the horizon. Taking a job as a messenger, delivering small packages, takes him into an area where his daughter Alice discovers him riding a motorcycle to her complete shock and dismay.With the help of two former employees, Michele decides to redo the new apartment where he and Elsa are forced to live after selling their own, more palatial home. They are approached by tenants in the housing complex that see an affordable way to get their apartments more livable. Elsa, in turn, finds another part-time job as a secretary for an executive of a shipping company, something that will make her vulnerable to the advances of her younger boss. Elsa and Michele's union seem to be heading for divorce, or at least separation. Fortunately, they find that in spite of all the things that have got in their way, they cannot live without one another.Silvio Soldini, whose "Pane e tulipani" impressed us, is at it again with this story that recalls other films about the same subject. What distinguishes this picture from the rest is the well written story Mr. Soldini and his collaborators created for his audience, notably the intense performances by Margherite Buy, one of the best actresses working in the Italian cinema today, and Antonio Albanese, who makes a dramatic turn from his usual comedic roles. The director takes us to meet a couple during a crisis. We are drawn into their plight because both Elsa and Michele are real people whose pain is about to consume them. Fortunately for them, they find strength in their predicament when some other couple would have packed it in as their predicament becomes all too evident.Genoa is captured in all its splendor by cinematographer Ramiro Civita. The music score plays well in the background, the work of Giovanni Venosta. Ultimately, it is Mr. Soldini's triumph for involving the viewer in a human situation that is not too far fetched and it feels real by the intense portrayal of the two principals and an excellent supporting cast.

deepdish80 A great follow up to Bread and Tulips, this story focuses on the other end of the spectrum of a relationship. As the movie progresses and the situation of the characters worsens, you begin to see subtle changes in the manner the couple interacts with each other, kudos to the fine actors for portraying such intimate and fragile emotions so realistically.Does love conquer all? Silvio Soldini (who was present after the world premiere of this in Toronto to comment on this question) isn't sure if it does, but he's hopeful. Decide for yourself and watch this film as he takes you on a journey of the highs and lows of a middle-aged relationship.