Customer Reviews

Caro Diario (Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Caro Diario" is a film that masquerades as Nanni Moretti's "imaginary movie" - the kind that each of us makes in his head. Long, meditative panning shots of modern Roman architecture, wandering through sprawling suburbs on a Vespa, amusing treks to islands to find solitude: the three distinct parts of the film are underscored by Moretti's deep sense of human loneliness, his quirkiness, and his need to connect with others. The people he encounters are either too absorbed with their own lives, too suspicious or too clueless to acknowledge that, yes, life can be baffling and that there is a life of the mind. Moretti just happens to summon his thoughts more readily.

That is what makes the film so funny and telling. In one scene, he rides through one of Rome's more modern, drab housing developments. He muses, is the place really as bad as people make it out to be? At a dead-end street he encounters a lone stranger and cries out, "Spinaceto's not as bad as I thought it would be!" The man agrees wholeheartedly, and they bid each other goodbye. Just a small sign - just a check on one's presumptions. In another scene, Moretti stops next to the driver of a slick sports car and pours out his thoughts before the light changes. The driver is polite, but in a hurry. Moretti has captured, without grand gestures or syrupy tricks, some of the essence of humanity.

Without conventional dialogue (most of the film is narrated by Moretti), the music has to fill in the mood and set the tone, and it does so beautifully, drawing from varied sources. This would be one soundtrack that defied categorization.

Moretti comes across as an eccentric - a sort of Italian Woody Allen - and the third act of "Caro Diario" shows him searching for a cure to a mysterious itch. This sequence drags just a bit, but it does play up the silliness of the European medical system (and we're not far behind). You are relieved at the end, when the diagnosis, although serious, is not fatal, and Moretti ends the film on a lighthearted but touching note.

As a "foreign film" it has less action than even the average Hollywood sleeper, but it's a great ride.

The thing that grabs me about this movie is that Nanni Moretti makes it look so simple to make a great film (its not, for sure) the plot is hilarious wheather Nanni is travelling between the Italian islands looking for a quite place to concentrate on his work or going from one dermatologist to another to find a cure for an itch. What makes this movie so great is that even when the plot stalls a little (not very often) you still have beutifull scences and great soundtrack to compensate for it. As far as I am concerned this movie is PERFECT.

When I watched this movie for the second time a few days ago, having first seen it two years ago, I remembered how I had instantly fallen in love with it the first time that I saw it. After I first saw the film, I couldn't remember the name of it but fortuneately an Italian friend reminded me of it a few weeks ago. This film's soundtrack is unforgetable and the cinematopgraphy is outstanding. His personal "Odyseey" through the Italian islands and his funny, yet poignant, drive through Rome and the countryside on his Vespa come to life through Moretti. Thid film whisks away the viewer on a deeply poignant and comic personal journey. I love the part when he joins in the dancing and then sways from side to side on his Vespa while listening to Khaled's Didi. By the way, one reviewer asked about the music from the dance scene- the name of the song is "Visa para un Sueno" by Dominican superstar Juan Luis Guerra. It is available on his '440' album. Juan Luis Guerra is one of my favorite musical artists, along with Khaled. Any film that has their songs back to back in a soundtrack (something I didn't think possible!)was clearly tailor made for me, but everyone can relate to this film and find meaning in it. The piano interlude and scenery during his journey to the slain Italian director's momument is haunting. Highly recommended.

This is one of my favorite movies -- a joy to watch repeatedly, especially the opening scenes riding through Rome on his Vespa and his hysterical take on families dominated by their children.

By the end of this movie, in a very particular, specific moment, I think I finally understood, for the first time, what making movies is all about, what movies are for.

Just don't expect explosions (although there are plenty of them) or street chases (um, there's a long one, too) ;-)

There are so many things that make this movie great, but to me two things stand out. The melancholy scene of the Siremar ferry passing behind Nanni on the island of Stromboli that foreshadows his bout with cancer in the third act. And the redemptive and glorious act of drinking a simple glass of water. If you don't want to buy a Vespa after seeing this movie you have no soul.

Nanni Moretti's Caro Diario is one of the most hopeful films I've seen in a long time. Listening to Moretti's quiet musings as he putters about Rome on his Vespa or watching his hapless scholar-friend comically succumb to the lotus eating world of American TV makes me realize how human we are all, and how wonderfully human are the Italians. This movie will cure any bad mood. Moretti is the best thing to happen to film since Federico Fellini picked up a camera.

Not certain exactly why I was captivated by this movie, but I was.
Movie divided in three sections. In the first section, Mr. Moretti cruises around various neighborhoods in Rome on his motor scooter sharing his offbeat observations. In the second section, Moretti explores the Italian Islands with his friend looking for a quiet place to write - encountering family and characters along the way. The final section shares Moretti's personal health issues including chemotherapy, a rash that won't go away and the loads of medical solutions offered up by the medical establishment. This movie has beautiful Italian scenery and I felt like I was on a slow walk on a breezy day in Italy - experiencing what Italians see and feel each day.

Even if youv'e never been to Roma or Stromboli and you don't know who Silvana Mangaro is. Indulge in this story of life and comedy and then if you still don't like it, book a trip to Italy and you will be hooked.

This movie is a joy. Rome looks beautiful from the back of Moretti's vespa and the scenes on the southern islands and in the mountains are stunning. Moretti's observations on popular culture, modern medicine and politics are dry and very funny. And there are episodes of lighter humour, like the infuriating but delightful children who jam the public phone system and the encounter with the American tourists who provide 'Bold and the Beautiful' updates to Moretti's soap opera-obsessed companion. Many images from Caro Diairio linger in the memory and it is a movie which will pass the test of time.