The Salt of Life (2011)

Lately I've come to appreciate small, intimate movies that are in the 'slice of life' style. This Italian gem I recently sampled is a worthy example. The eponymous Gianni is a retiree in Rome, somewhere on the long end of middle-age. His wife still works, thus he is sent off on various domestic errands during working hours, and this he is content to do. Then there's his somewhat confused daughter and her equally shiftless boyfriend who has moved into their home. There's Gianni's rich, demanding mother who has him at her beck and call. And then there's his friend and peer Alfonso, a rakish lawyer who attempts to get Gianni off the straight and narrow and into the fast lane of late-age sexual/romantic dalliance.Now this straight and narrow as it were, is very much Gianni's choice. It's just that he has reached a point where he is seemingly invisible to the young women around him. Invisible and inaudible. He is touchingly earnest in his realization, accepting it with a kind of shrugging melancholy. But he has the persistent Alfonso who keeps nudging him away from this acceptance; even if we don't know if Alfonso is actually successful with the young women himself. And there are a few very beautiful women around poor Gianni. First, the downstairs neighbor, a hazel-eyed sprite who flirts with him relentlessly, turns out to have passed off her dog-walking duties on him. Then the identical blond twins, Alfonso's clients; Gianni's mother's caretaker; another woman who is an old flame, and yet another who is an old acquaintance: they make up the rolls as he shambles around amiably trying to see where he can get.Read full review at http://devikamenon.blogspot.com/2016/06/foreign- movie-Friday-gianni-e-le-donne.html

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.

Some critics blamed this film for being a failed Italian comedy. For sure, supposing the aim of Gianni Di Gregorio (the director-writer-main actor) had been to make one, "Gianni e le donne" would not have hit the mark: it is indeed neither hilarious nor cruel enough to be a true successor of Risi, Scola, Monicelli and company. The reason why they criticized this movie simply lies in the fact that they had decided in advance that, with a title like "Gianni e le donne", the film was to be a new "I mostri" or "Il sorpasso" and they did not watch it for what it really was. By way of example, Gianni, the central character, has nothing to do with the "monsters" played by Gassman or Sordi. He is actually a genial retired man, well liked by his neighbors (a little too much, to tell the truth, as they tend to somewhat take advantage of his kindness). He is no seducer and if the title is "Gianni and the Women", the blame is to be put on his friend Alfonso, a sixty-odd-year-old lawyer who urges him to have mistresses to stay in the race. According to him, all the males over sixty, except Gianni, get laid with a younger woman, which, in addition to living life to the full, keeps them from becoming old hats. Gianni, the kind of man who goes with the flow, complies, even if halfheartedly, just like he obeys his capricious old mother whenever she rings for him, exactly the way he walks his downstairs neighbor's dog, etc. The good man will thus be seen trying his luck with several women: Kristina, his mother's sexy personal nurse ; the divorced daughter of one of his mother's friends ; one of a pair of attractive twins... With a level of success proportional to his lack of motivation! So, if you accept the idea that Gianni is not a Gassman or Manfredi-like monster, if you do not expect any graphic or even crazy sex (as the title could imply), you will doubtless enjoy "Gianni e le donne". For, what you will get instead is far from uninteresting, namely a relevant slice of life in today's Italy, containing an implicit criticism of its current defects (Gianni's future son-in-law who, as he does not find work, does not try to find any ; the pervasiveness of sex in everyday life ; the cult of youth tyranny) ; a leisurely rhythm similar to the pace of real life ; discreet smiles rather than big laughs. And if you value such qualities, you will not feel let down because of an incorrect supposition. Gianni Di Gregorio plays with talent this ordinary man who, through the misadventures he goes through, starts questioning himself about the meaning of his life and about the coming of old age. He can even move the unprejudiced viewer, without overplaying, in fine touches that, by an accumulation effect, add to the truthfulness of the character. In a way, Gianni Di Gregorio in this movie appears as a distant cousin - older and less eccentric - of Jean-Pierre Léaud in François Truffaut's "Domicile conjugal" As good as him, but in a more outlandish style, is the excellent Valeria De Franciscis, playing Gianni's rich and selfish mother. The rest of the cast fulfills its task to perfection. Viewing "Gianni e le donne" proves a very satisfying experience. Pleasant and thought-provoking, this comedy proves one more time that, contrary to conventional wisdom, Italian cinema is not dead.