Mid-August Lunch (2008)

This film is wonderful.The actors are wonderfully authentic.A man who lives with his elderly mother agrees to take care of some elderly women in return for a break on some bills he owes to the condo association. (He is somewhat of a slacker)The human dynamics is spot on and wonderful to watch.The acting is perfect. Especially by the lead actor director.An unexpected gem. If only there were more of these films made. Cannot think of enough good things to say.Take a little bit of a risk and you find films like this.

We saw this gem of a small movie at our local preview club. What a gem! If you're looking for big-issue movies or blockbusters, forget this one. This is a simple, very Italian story about a man who lives with and takes care of his mother, and the surprising joy he, mama, and their new friends receive during the Italian holiday of "ferragosto," when everyone who's anyone leaves Rome on holiday.In fact, having spent a good deal of time in Rome, I can say with confidence that this movie is more than just Italian. It's as Roman as the Forum, Piazza Navona, or Giolitti's ice cream.The cast, largely filled by non-professionals, is wonderful, sweet, and very real. Our "hero," if you can call him that, wonderfully played by director and writer Gianni de Gregorio, has the perfect puzzled and world-weary face for this (non-)journey in the Roman mid-summer heat. He's reminiscent of Jerry Orbach with a major Italian shrug.There's nothing trite here, and nothing not to love.

I loved this movie! It's a little movie that totally captivated me. It's the story of a middle-aged unmarried man who lives in Rome with his mother. Money is obviously tight but they seem to live a very nice life. Unfortunately, the condominium bills keep piling up. So when the head of the condominium offers to forgive the expenses in return for his caring for the condo head's mother for 2 days (over Ferragosto), he agrees. When the mother shows up, an aunt also comes - obviously a packaged deal. Through another act of fate, another elderly woman comes to share the overnight experience. The women are wonderful as is the main actor (Gianni DiGregorio) - he is also the writer and director. He was at the showing I attended and shared some interesting info. These women are not actors. One is his aunt and one is a family friend. He found the other two at a home for the elderly. Said he interviewed 100 women and had trouble deciding because so many were so wonderful. The crew was exhausted at the end of the day - these women were on a roll - and all were over 90 years old. The apartment in which he lived was actually the apartment in which he had lived with his mother. This was a low- budget film which was one of the reasons that he starred in the film, i.e., he couldn't afford to hire a "real" actor. Thank you Gianni for a wonderful movie!

The events of this "small" (and short: just 75 minutes) movie take place in Rome, in the popular Trastevere district, over two days: the 14th and the 15th of August. Those are the eve and the holiday of Ferragosto, when everybody in Italy wishes to be out of town with their loved ones, friends or family, to enjoy a relaxing day in the cool. This is not the case of Gianni, a middle-aged, single man, who finds himself trapped in his own home with his elderly mother. Gianni has a problem with money (from the appearance and location of his house, and the refined, posh way of speaking of his mother, we soon learn that he belongs to an impoverished high middle-class family), so when the manager of his block of flats proposes to cut off all his debts if he provides hospitality for a couple of days to his own elderly mother, Marina, Gianni cannot refuse. For a few hundred Euros he agrees also to look after to "zia Maria", the manager's elderly aunt. Later, after an umpteenth free call, Gianni cannot refuse to give hospitality to his doctor's mother, Grazia, an elderly woman on a strict diet. Gianni manages to find beds for the three women and finds himself full-time employed in their care: cooking all their meals, helping Grazia to get asleep, coping with Marina's whims, helping the ladies to get along... Many funny moments follow,especially due to the eccentricity and sometimes childishness of the elderly ladies. None of them is played by a professional actress, and their spontaneity is put to great effect. In spite of the comedy and the light tone, what you get here is a movie filled with serious, even somber themes: the role of elderly people in our society, their loneliness, the inability of their children to deal with them. But we also see the liveliness of the ladies, their desire to live a full life till the end, their respect for those who have a kind word for them. A well-made, important film, which deserves the success it's having in Italy.