Il minestrone (1981)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Sergio Citti

Writers:

Vincenzo Cerami (writer)
Sergio Citti (writer)

Release Date:

15 January 1985 (Italy)

Plot Keywords:

Food In Title

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Roberto Benigni	...	Il maestro
Franco Citti	...	Francesco
Ninetto Davoli	...	Giovanni
Daria Nicolodi	...	Moglie di Gildo
Fabio Traversa	...	Il cameriere
Francesca Rinaldi	...	Figlioletta di Gildo
Olimpia Carlisi	...	Becchina, venditrice di bare
Giorgio Gaber	...	Il profeta
Franco Iavarone	...	Gildo (as Franco Javarone)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Carlo Monni
Daniela Piperno

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Sweet, poetic Hunger

I must say I'm not that Citti's fan. Nevertheless, I've been very curious watching this rare movie. And, well it's been a surprise. Despite of a poor photography, the actors and actresses starring, the plot, the poetry of images and words, made me think it was a little masterpiece. It's more than a movie, a metaphor. The hunger, the hunger for all. The need for food, adventure, knowledge, dreams. And dreams in fact seem to satisfy more than food itself. Giorgio Gaber, Dario Benigni, Franco Javarone, Daria Nicolodi, the director Citti, Ninetto Davoli are metaphors themselves of a lost way of making cinema, and , in one word, of describing Italy. Gaber's dry foolness, Javarone's Neapolitan way of helping people, Nicolodi's bourgeois sweetness, Benigni's sense for dream react with poor, simple philosophy played by Davoli and Citti. A sweet poem, a gentle flower.