How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 10 March 2014
This article is a review of THOSE HAPPY YEARS.Seen as part of the Cinema Made In Italy 2014 season. (For more information, click here.)
|
“Can’t we at least smash the car outside?” Dario (Samuel Garofalo)
Is it a rule that a film about artists must have copious female nudity? Those that enjoy the fairer sex are unlikely to complain; though, there is the quiet sense of exploitation that doesn’t always sit right. Director Daniele Luchetti just about gets away with it, thanks to a passionate energy, and the unusual perspective of a suburban family. Artistry and domesticity. His third project in a row tackling the nuclear family.
Occasional voice-over, from eldest child Dario, looking back on “the history of my family in the summer of 1974” kicks off a hybrid comedy-drama, mixing three subgenres: The artist’s journey, female emancipation and coming of age. Due to skilful, unpredictable storytelling, a sticky mess of ideas is avoided. Vibrancy of writing and acting draw us in.
Is it a rule that a film about artists must have copious female nudity? Those that enjoy the fairer sex are unlikely to complain; though, there is the quiet sense of exploitation that doesn’t always sit right. Director Daniele Luchetti just about gets away with it, thanks to a passionate energy, and the unusual perspective of a suburban family. Artistry and domesticity. His third project in a row tackling the nuclear family.
Occasional voice-over, from eldest child Dario, looking back on “the history of my family in the summer of 1974” kicks off a hybrid comedy-drama, mixing three subgenres: The artist’s journey, female emancipation and coming of age. Due to skilful, unpredictable storytelling, a sticky mess of ideas is avoided. Vibrancy of writing and acting draw us in.
|
|
Paterfamilias Guido Marchetti (Kim Rossi Stuart – ROMANZO CRIMINALE) shoos out his young sons from the studio that appends their middle class Rome abode. Taking casts of apparel-less models, who enjoy his attentions, to turn into huge lamps, is how he makes some money, lecturing on the side. Unfulfilled, desiring of being a recognised avant-garde artist, is how an elder unseen Dario narrates about his father’s state of mind. Self-obsessed to the point of neglecting his family, wife Serena (Micaela Ramazzotti) won’t allow any cold shoulder, manipulating him into the fold. As Dario observes, both extended families use warmth and detachment to grasp onto one another. Love and attention and freedom are the preoccupations of THOSE HAPPY YEARS. Smothering her husband, Serena’s only interest is him and their children. Sensing parental struggle, neither being satisfied, Dario refuses to call them mum and dad, instead acknowledging preoccupation and slight distance talks to them as if acquaintances. Recognising everyone’s desire for emotional and physical attention is one of the film’s real accomplishments.
Separation is a possibility now that Italy has allowed divorce. Women’s liberation has come late to the Mediterranean idyll. Art-furniture seller, and friend of the family, Helke (Martina Gedeck – THE LIVES OF OTHERS) hastens the evolution within the Marchetti household, gently exploiting Serena’s dissatisfaction for her libidinous ends. Lust is an adult preoccupation portrayed sans malice. Usually creativity is explored on a heady plane in cinema, refreshingly THOSE HAPPY YEARS pits art and family life surprisingly intimately.
Any kind of ennui is sidestepped via ratatat dialogue and regular shouting matches born out of frustration. A bittersweet conclusion ensures greater memorability.