Gianni is sixty. He is retired but has not become lazy for all that. In fact he is a helpful fellow who gives a hand to all those who need one: shopping for his wife, walking the pretty neighbor's dog, and so on. Everybody likes Gianni, but is it for the right reasons? Doesn't his wife profit by the situation (she still works so it is only logical that Gianni do all the chores)? Isn't he subject to the excruciating whims of his rich mother?... Sure, everybody LIKES Gianni, but who LOVES him? Agreed, being kind to them, he is the ladies pet, but he does not attract them anymore. That is why, when his macho lawyer friend Alfonso blames him for not having young mistresses "like every other senior Italian male", Gianni, who is beginning to ask himself questions about what it is like to become old, starts chasing dames.
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That was an excellent one.
disgusting, overrated, pointless
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Being someone of a similar age, & in a vaguely similar situation, I felt very sympathetic to the central character. But it just wasn't enough. I love gentle, wry comedy, 50s films such as The Ladykillers being among my favourites, but there was always something else, something more darkly comic & sardonic going on beneath the surface of such films.This was a pleasant film, but slight in the extreme; full of commonplaces, all performed with a sigh & a shrug of the shoulders, his friend was a stereotype, so were the girls, he seemed to have no real interest in anything. The only thing which made me laugh was the wheel spinning nuns. And I really couldn't see the significance of the ending.There are worse ways to kill a couple of hours, but life, as the lead character evidently knows, is far too short for that!
Saw - and enjoyed - this Italian comedy drama recently at our local Arts Centre film club. This rich slice of late middle aged Gianni's (Gianni de Gregorio, who is also the film's director) life is one of being ignored by his wife, avoiding his eccentric mother and being jealous of all his friends who seem to still have what it takes with the ladies...Modestly staged, filmed mostly in one cramped town house and with a script that seems at times to be ad-libbed, there's a certain enthusiasm about it all, a relish for life and one of wishing for the finer things in life.Subsequently, he tries to chat up the ladies but the smallest of obstacles upset his plans, including his mother's thirst for innocent (but costly) gambling with her friends. One of the comedic highlights is when Gianni is told that a little blue pill is all he needs for an invigorated love life - and he doesn't realise exactly how that might come about. It's tastefully done, I have to add!Seemably using much the same cast as he did with 'Mid August Lunch' Di Gregorio keeps it 'in the family', low key and undoubtedly, cheap.This little film won't pick up the awards at Cannes and can seem just a little disorganised, but its quiet charm warmed over all that went to see it, including me. Recommended as something a little different and not too heavy, not too long either - suitable for the older generation, too. Also, a good alternative to a trashy rom-com if you're renting.
"The Salt Of Life" is a delightful, absurdist, male menopause comedy. Gianni (Gianni Di Gregorio) is a 60 year old retiree with a libido that has gone into hyperdrive. He gets no gratification from his condescending wife who berates him for wasting his pension on frivolous expenditures. He also shares living space with an apathetic college age daughter and her no-account boyfriend who lolls away the day eating and reading the paper. His mother Valeria (Valeria De Franciscis) lives in a small villa where she treats Gianni like a servant summoning him when the TV goes on the fritz. His daily recreation consists of walking the dog and ogling the opposite sex. The elderly men he observes roosting on the sidewalk are a foreshadowing of a future he dreads and makes him all the more determined to rekindle his sex life. Actor, director and co-screenwriter Gianni Di Gregorio gives a totally authentic and wonderfully funny performance. "The Salt Of Life" is a nice piece of escapist entertainment. A hilarious 90 minute diversion. I hated to see it end.
After Mid August Lunch, another little great movie by Di Gregorio. In this second film, the mise-en-scene has become more mature, as also the structure of the script. The realism of the acting and dialogs are the same of Mid August Lunch, giving freshness and comic reliefs to the story. The plot is about a 60 years old man who suddenly understands he's become "transparent" for women, simply they don't look at him in "that certain way" anymore. But this is the surface of the movie, the funny "hook" of the storyline. What really matters to Di Gregorio is something else, something deeper, related to the loneliness of a man facing old age. So sometimes the film takes a different way, turning from the comedy for a moment, with beautiful flashes of melancholy and bittersweet fatalism which reach levels of great cinema. The Salt of Life suggest the birth of a new author.
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