Così ridevano (1998)

Turin at the end of the fifties: two brothers have emigrated there from Sicily and the older works very hard to let the younger study and free himself from poverty through culture. The boy ... See full summary »

Director:

Gianni Amelio

Writers:

Gianni Amelio, Daniele Gaglianone,

Stars:

Francesco Giuffrida, Enrico Lo Verso, Rosaria Danzè

5 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Francesco Giuffrida	...	Pietro
Enrico Lo Verso	...	Giovanni
Rosaria Danzè	...	Lucia
Fabrizio Gifuni	...	Pelaia
Claudio Contartese	...	Rosario
Domenico Ragusa	...	Simone
Simonetta Benozzo	...	Ada
Pietro Paglietti	...	Battista
Corrado Borsa	...	Teacher at Examination
Barbara Braga	...	Girl at Bar
Calogero Caruana	...	Giovanni's Friend
Edoardo Ciciriello	...	School Assistant from Naples
Valerio Contartese	...	Unemployed Boy from Calabria
Iolanda Donnini	...	Mrs. Verusio
Erika Doria	...	Alessandra

Storyline

Turin at the end of the fifties: two brothers have emigrated there from Sicily and the older works very hard to let the younger study and free himself from poverty through culture. The boy however is not keen on school and would like to begin to work. When after some time he gets his degree however things take a violent and dramatic turn......

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Plot Keywords:

turin | sicily | violence | immigrant | emigration | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

2 October 1998 (Italy)

Also Known As:

The Way We Laughed

Filming Locations:

Turin, Piedmont, Italy

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$10,210 (USA) (23 November 2001)

Gross:

$44,286 (USA) (22 March 2002)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematografica, Pacific Pictures, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (MiBAC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Despite winning the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, Gianni Amelio still had to wait over three years before he saw his film released in the US.

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Quotes

Giovanni: You think your children are your own, then they learn to walk and they leave you. Know what they say back home? "Raise hogs, 'cause then you can eat them"

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Connections

References Rocco and His Brothers (1960)

User Reviews

Lugubrious Tale of Two Brothers Illuminates But At A Glacial Pace

What a strange film! An immersion into a worker's life in Turin, and more particularly contrasting the lives to two brothers, the older, less educated, devoted obsessively to the idea that his younger sibling is going to excel, and the audience seldom clear about what the strange, younger lad is up to.

The Way We Laughed is loaded with exciting Italian locales, flirts briefly with political movements, but the focus is always on what's going to happen to the relationship of these very different men. In no way a cheerer-upper, and not exciting in any conventional way, the performances are superb and the narrative compellingly mysterious if the viewer has the patience for scenes that attempt to accurately capture the process of decision making, to the way relationships often work.