Dir. Gianni Di Gregorio, Italy, 2011, 90 mins, Italian with English subtitles
Cast: Gianni Di Gregorio, Valeria Di Franciscis Bendoni, Alfonso Santagata, Elisabetta Piccolomini
Review by Eva Moravetz
Late midlife crisis is at the centre of this clever and bittersweet Italian comedy, but those who expect some Berlusconi-like machismo and woman chasing (a parallel some critics hastily drew) are quite mistaken. Italian filmmakers are talented at taking simple, primeval feelings or dilemmas from everyday life and transforming them into entertaining, and often powerful, tragicomic situations. The Salt of Life is one such film thanks to its multi talented actor-writer-director Gianni Di Gregorio.
Di Gregorio is a classic example of the latecomer. He turns 62 this year and has a theatrical background and some years working as an assistant director, actor and co-writer on several films. His directorial debut was 2008’s surprise hit Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo Di Ferragosto) about a mama’s boy bachelor who entertains some old ladies including his own mother and the mothers of his landlord and doctor as an exchange for his debts to them during Italy’s biggest summer holiday. That film too was written by and starred DiGregorio and was produced by Matteo Garrone, the same writer-director with whom Di Gregorio co-wrote the critically acclaimed Gomorrah (2008). It won several awards at European film festivals including the Luigi De Laurentiis award for First Feature Film at the 65th Venice Film Festival and the Satyajit Ray award at the London Film Festival.
The Salt Of Life, set in the Roman district of Trastevere, follows Gianni (Gianni Di Gregorio), a freshly retired husband, father and son, who spends his time doing household chores for a whole string of people: his busy wife and daughter, his pretty neighbour but most prominently his domineering, 96 year-old mother (Valeria Di Franciscis Bendoni). The only thing that seems to be missing from his life is romance. Although he does not appear to be desperate for seduction, he is egged on in that direction by his middle-aged lawyer friend Alfonso (Alfonso Santagata). Alfonso’s character shows more likeness to the ‘Berlusconi’ type; he thinks a receding hairline is no obstacle to conquering women half one’s age. Thus Gianni, shy and cautious, embarks on a journey of wooing potential mistresses – whether it’s his mother’s sexy carer, the young neighbour whose dog he walks, an opera singing acquaintance or his posh old flame. He does this while tending to grocery shopping, dog-walking and satisfying his overbearing mother’s requests at the most impossible hours of the day.
What is loveable about Gianni’s character is that he never becomes a ridiculous or obnoxious cliché of a past-it Lothario desperate for a conquest. He approaches women with a timid charm and a kind of self-effacing melancholy that is far from the puffed-up macho stereotype of the Latin love conqueror. Gianni is polite, sensitive, domesticated and despite that fact that he gives in to every whim of his mother, he still projects an attractive masculinity, which is heightened by Di Gregorio’s lithe body, weathered face and charisma.
The film’s Italian title ‘Gianni e le donne’, which literally translates as ‘Gianni and the women’, is perhaps more to the point as the movie is dominated by women. Gianni’s mother is one of the best characters and Bendoni pulls off a hilarious performance as a possessive, bossy but still loveable and childlike nonagenarian. She also played the mother in Mid-August Lunch and The Salt Of Life is strongly autobiographical, as Di Gregorio cared for his ailing mother (whom he was very close to) for ten years until her death.
The film highlights some traits of Roman society: the central part that women, especially mothers, play in their son’s lives and the love of good food and drink. There are lots of scenes at dinner tables. Gianni loves wine and champagne always flows in his mother’s patrician villa, whereas the boyfriend of Gianni’s daughter Teresa (Teresa Di Gregorio, the director’s own daughter) is an unemployed homebody who represents on aspect of Italy’s latest generation of youngsters, those who are out of work but not bothered enough about it to find some.
Gianni Di Gregorio proves that reaching middle-age is no obstacle to becoming a successful filmmaker and The Salt Of Life, although not providing ground-breaking new ideas is still a refreshing change. It is also evidence in our youth-obsessed society, that people past sixty can be great characters, provide great story material and take centre stage in a movie just as much as twenty-year-olds.
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