Happy Family, 2010 – Gabriele Salvatores

Happy Family, 2010 – by Gabriele Salvatores 

With:  Diego Abatantuono, Fabio De Luigi, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Margherita Buy, Carla Signoris.

Plot: The destiny of two families becomes intertwined when two headstrong fifteen-year olds decide to get married. Because of a trivial road accident, Ezio, the star-storyteller of this movie, is thrown into a sort of microcosm where parents may be wise but also nuttier than teens, mothers are neurotic but brave, grandmother are inevitably foolish, daughters are gorgeous and dogs are stubborn and in love. In short, two contemporary families which slip classifications and labels, and constantly evolve, in an unstable balance, alive, happy, bewildered. Happy Family is a disguised admission, a disguised diary, a play about fearing happiness, about the fear to turn to something we do not know. It is an exorcism written in Milan at summer, when not a leaf stirs and when what is normally unspoken comes out of the silence. All the wishes and fears. To be too much, of being none. Smiles, clashes and exciting encounters. Eyesores and imperfections watched ironically. Flaws which turn into poetry. And that is how the daily fear of living a half life, of being predictable is driven away. It is a comedy telling life as if it were a movie. Or, it is a movie telling life as if it were a comedy. The screenplay is by Alessandro Genovesi and was finalist at the Franco Solinas 2008 Award.

festival & awards:

FESTIVAL DU CINEMA ITALIEN DE BASTIA2011: En compétition : Panorama

ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL OF ST. LOUIS 2011

MIAMI/ACAPULCO ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL2011

NEW ZEALAND ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2011

AUSTRALIA – LAVAZZA ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2010

FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DEL NUEVO CINE LATINOAMERICANO 2010: Muestra de Cine Italiano

LINCOLN CENTER – OPEN ROADS 2010

MITTELCINEMAFEST – ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL IN BUDAPEST 2010

NICE 2010: Special Event

RENCONTRES DU CINÉMA ITALIEN À TOULOUSE 2010: Compétition – Prix de la Critique

VILLERUPT’S ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2010: Competition