My Mother

source: Mia madre

Why this film got so many high praises? Were we watching the same film, or we just mixed up? To us, me and my wife, both thought it's one of the worst European movies we ever watched. It's so boring from the very beginning till when we both suddenly said: "I can't watch it for another minute!" at the same moment. What's the purpose of this loosely patched, going-nowhere film? Mother was dying, yeah, so what? The daughter had a tough marriage life and a difficult directing movie by hiring a half crazy American Italian to jiggle and mess up her work. The dialog was so boring, the storyline...did it ever exist? We like Ms. Buy so much in her "A Five Star Life" that lured us to seek out her other films, but after this one, we'd give her up permanently. We wouldn't waste our time and energy again.

When your personal life affects your working abilities, it is never good for anybody. But there are things that you cannot influence (some may call them Destiny). When people close to you (and your mother would count into that group for a majority of people), are about to leave your life, there is going to be a lot of emotion involved. Take that to work, where a star may or may not be right about being upset about things and you start clashing, getting frustrated over time and lose focus overall. Superbly acted by all those involved, this is dense and slow paced and surely not for everyone to "enjoy" (if that is the right word to use). But there is a lot things that you can take away here. One of them: Pain is all around us and we have to work with it and even if we're not able to accept it, still be able to move on

"Mia Madre" (2015 release from Italy; 107 min.; US title "My Mother") brings the story of Margherita (played by Margherita Buy). As the movie opens, we are in the mid of a film shoot, with Margherita as the movie's director. After the day's shoot, she visits her ailing mom (played by Giulia Lazzarini), who was recently hospitalized. Meanwhile Margherita also has to deal with her own issues, including the fact that she doesn't see any future in the relationship with her boyfriend Vittorio. Fortunately she get some help from her brother Giovanni (played by Nanni Moretti). But life becomes yet more complicated when Barry (played by John Turturro) arrives on the set of the film. To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. Couple of comments: this movie is directed, co-written and co-produced by Nanni Moretti (who also plays one of the major roles). This is really two films within one: there is the family drama of how a brother and sister are coping with an ailing and hospitalized mother, and then there is the making of the 'social realist' film about a factory that may be cutting one-third of its labor force. It's not clear to me why Moretti choose to combine two two elements into one movie, as they are pretty much existing independently from each other, safe for one aspect: Margherita. That said, the acting performances are tops throughout the movie, perhaps none more so than Giulia Lazzarini as the ailing mother. Also note that John Torturro speaks mostly Italian in this role (I can only assume he already spoke Italian before this movie). "Mia Madre" premiered at the 2015 Cannes film festival, where it won one of the major prize. Out of the blue and without any fanfare or advertising, "Mia Madre" showed up at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati this weekend. Why it's taken almost 18 months to get a release, I have no idea but better late than never I suppose. The Sunday matinée screening where I saw this at was attended poorly and I can't imagine this will play for more than a week. If you are in the mood for a quality foreign family drama with a lot of great acting performances, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in theaters, on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

Mia Madre ("My Mum") is a typical Italian offering – a story that has no beginning and no end… but the bits in between are absolutely delightful and totally absorbing. Mia Madre is filled with unforgettable characters. At its heart is Margherita, (played by Margherita Buy), a middle-aged film director who has made any number of gritty Italian 'socially aware' movies in the style of a Ken Loach or Mile Leigh. She is now questioning whether her films really work and if they make any difference to an indifferent world. She is having problems with her latest effort, a film about a factory whose workers are on strike and is being taken over by a rich Italian/American. She has trouble with the production and camera crews and is having a nightmare with an Italian/American actor, Barry, brought in to play the new factory owner, and who continually forgets his lines. She has broken up with her partner and cannot relate to her teenage daughter. But the biggest problem is her mother, who is in hospital dying; but mum hasn't been told she is dying and wants to go home. It's enough to drag down most people in a mid-life crisis and it very nearly does for Margherita. There are some wonderful scenes between Margherita and her mother and with her ex-partner, and her brother, both of whom are distressed with Mum's condition. Then there is the interplay with her daughter who is being rebellious but is also emotionally affected by her Grandmother's condition. From time to time, Margherita has flashbacks of her mother in better times when she was a highly regarded lecturer at a university. She sadly speculates on what will happen to hundreds of books owned by her mother after she dies. Amidst all this, the film production stumbles on, and relations between Margherita and star actor Barry get worse and worse, with Barry 'blowing up' on set and later Margherita telling him just what she thinks of him in words that leave little to the imagination. She has a heart-to-heart with her ex-partner and she becomes distraught by the realisation that she has been cold and unfeeling to her ex-partner and also to her family, friends and work colleagues – in fact to everyone. It's a wonderful mishmash of emotions and strong personalities, and the great acting brings these characters alive and makes you want to know what happens. As I said, it doesn't really have any ending, but it does have closure of sorts, and the film will leave you feeling quite satisfied, as good Italian films always do. Mia Madre won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at last year's Cannes Film Festival, and at a running time of 1 hour 45 minutes, it will uplift your spirits and give you much food for thought.

6 months after my mother passed away I saw this movie in Groningen the Netherlands. Because of several reasons I had no time to process her death. This movie reminds me of many memories that I had with my mother and help me in processing. Thanks for Margherita Buy for her outstanding role in this movie. It gave me a lot of comfort

Would a film about personal loss put you off? If the answer is no, absolutely watch this: it's great. It's not by chance that Cahier de Cinema awarded it the title of best film of 2015. Forget the complacency and "faciloneria" of so much of Italian cinema: Mia Madre is a very deep film which gets its emotional tone bang on the money: it's sad, but not without a sense of humour; it's heartfelt, but never maudlin. The exactitude of some moments is breathtaking: the dream-like scene of the queue in front of the movie theatre, for example, about revisiting memories, and about personal identity, gives me goosebumps each time I see it. The tragedy and triviality of existence, the passing of time, human relationships -- everything is focused through the imperfect, but revealing, lens of the middle age crisis of the protagonist. Eventually we get to understand and love her, her difficult juggling of many personas, her honesty. This is a movie set and made in Italy but it's truly European in quality and tone. If you can get past the seriousness of the theme, I promise you you won't get bored for one single scene. I am glad we have Nanni Moretti, he's truly a national treasure.

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.

In My Mother director Nanni Moretti examines three generations of women as they attempt to find their identities and make their lives. The title emphasizes the grandmother, as her heart weakens and she loses hold on her mind and body. Her teaching Latin stressed the discipline of structure — in a sentence, hence in life — but she also knew when to cut loose and dance with her students. One remembers that she taught them life as well as Latin. In another Latin lesson, she urges a nuanced sensitivity to verbs. Nouns are easy enough, the given, but what counts is what we do, the verbs, the actions that we choose to define us and our lives. Her granddaughter is a teenager just adopting the Latin discipline. She is already negotiating her relationships with her divorced parents. When she gets her scooter she learns that riding it requires care but also a loosening up and a leaning in. It's an emblem of the balance she needs to move along in life — as granny balanced discipline with dance. For want of that discipline, the girl's school term was ruined by a heartbreaking love. The central character is the girl's mother, Margherita, a film director trying to make a labour drama while dealing with her mother's decay and death. An ex-lover actor says that she's too insensitive to others and too willful to get along. Her problem lies in the instruction she gives her actors: "Play the actor as well as the role." The actors don't understand that and she admits she doesn't either. A director normally asks a director for total immersion in the character. But in her life Margherita lives detached from others. That's why her two relationships ended, why she didn't know about her daughter's heartbreak, why she only now learns what values and esteem her mother commanded. In contrast to these three strong women are two weak men. John Turturro plays the comic butt, an American actor whose ego dwarfs his abilities and record. As he struggles with the language and the lines he's a caricature of playing the actor instead of the role. Director Moratti himself plays Margherita's brother, embodying the ineffectuality usually ascribed to the women in a male-cantered drama. The devoted son takes a leave of absence from his job, then quits it altogether, despite being warned how hard it will be for a man his age to find another. Driven to fulfil the noun, devoted son, he withdraws from the constructive and responsible verbs or actions, leaving himself helpless. The last word of the film is Margherita's memory of her mother saying "Tomorrow," when asked what she's thinking. Her daughter and granddaughter have learned from her how to face the future. Her son backed away.

The lead character is a movie director and always in the position to dominate the team.Someone call her a little of arrogant lady.But once she turn the face to the hard condition to deal with,she is about to avoid it.She wants to erase this fact from her mind totally.She is weak as well as others but she isn't good at release it in public.