Nyff 2015

[Chris Knipp]

MIA MADRE/MY MOTHER (Nanni Moretti 2015)

Based on the death of his own mother while he was making Habemus Papam, with a fine stage actress, Giulia Lazzarini, (whom he did not previously know) as the elderly mom in hospital and Moretti and his recent sort of "muse" Margherita Buy as adult children struggling to cope with the fact that she is going to die. I could not put it better than Jay Weissberg in Variety: "Moretti’s exploration of loss is unquestionably affecting, and My Mother has powerful moments, yet they’re not always well integrated with the broadly pitched moviemaking scenes, featuring a caricaturish John Turturro." Not as affecting by a long sight as his own 2001 The Son's Room and no where near as real and important as Haneke's Amour. Again I stayed for the Q&A and sat up close and I was amazed by how minimally competent the interpreter for Moretti's Italian was. He kept leaving out basic elements in Moretti's comments/replies so Moretti himself insisted and repeated them. But he got the ideas across. Just without the nuance.