LAURA MORANTE: SOLO/ASSOLO (2016)


LAURA MORANTE (CENTER) IN ASSOLO

Morante looks at aging

Laura Morante's second film as a director, writer and star takes on some very serious issues. It considers the realities of growing old and being alone. But the thrust is positive: Assolo ("Solo") is an argument in favor of enjoyable solitude. Her character, Flavia, entering her fifties, has had two husbands, some lovers, two sons, and seems to be still involved with and dependent upon these men, and their current women, on a day-to-day basis. Through the course of the film, which involves much soul-searching (in voiceover) and frequent sessions with a shrink called Dr. Grünewald, Flavia comes to accept that a neighbors' mistreated dog, whom she has adopted, is perhaps all the company she really needs.

After we have seen the perfidiousness of the men in her life and the unsatisfactory nature of the new men available, we can agree with this decision. All is observed with a humane and forgiving eye in Morante's gently humorous film, which instructs, as it entertains. And yet again, despite plenty of polish and charm and the star's indestructible good looks, the result isn't wholly successful as a movie and hasn't anything truly distinctive about it. Don't et me wrong: Laura Morante, who's most remembered in this country for her performance as the mother in Nanni Moretti's beautiful and sad The Son's Room, is someone I love to watch. It just looks like I'd rather watch her being directed by someone other than herself.

Assolo is a thorough study of its protagonist's dilemmas. But therein lies the rub: explaining Flavia's circumstances takes up so much time this starts to feel like an instructional film. Though in this in many ways well-made and observant film the people in Flavia's life take hold as characters early on, it's fully two thirds of the way in before they move beyond vignettes and examples and a story starts to take hold. And as with Morante's first film as a director, [url="http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2250&view=previous"]The Cherry on the Cake[/url, Assolo has a lot of trouble establishing any kind of rhythm. This is because of a confusion of genres. The movie wavers between midlife crisis tale, wistful romantic comedy, and bourgeois satire. Some of the best moments come when Flavia's son, or his awful girlfriend, hold the screen. There is something vivid and of these times about their rude directness. But like almost everybody, except Flavia and Dr. Grünewald, they remain bit players, even though she seems only a sounding board for them.

The Cherry on the Cake was in French, and this time the French star Lambert Wilson returns the favor and appears, speaking Italian, as Flavia's sometime lover. But when he visits, it's on a business trip, and he insists on staying at a hotel because "it's more convenient." This is one of so many instances of how Flavia is slighted by the men around her. Dr. Grünewald points out that she has low self-esteem, and much of it is due to how she is being treated.

The sense of a story finally takes hold, but things are worked out only clumsily. At the end Flavia is driving out in the country in a red convertible with Kira, the little dog, at her side: victory! She has moves outside Rome and gotten a driver's license and a car. But how did she do that? We only see her failing her driving tests, repeatedly, ever more spectacularly. Is this another one of her dreams? If so, Assolo leaves things dangling. But mind you, Laura Morante has assembled a good cast and she is a wonderful-looking woman who exemplifies all that is lovely and appealing about Italian women.

Assolo {"Solo"), 97 mins., opened 5 January 2016 in Italy. It was part of the Open Roads Italian film series at Lincoln Center in June and was screened for this review as part of the Milll Valley Film Festival, October 2016.