Le chiavi di casa (2004)

Director:

Gianni Amelio

Writers:

Giuseppe Pontiggia (novel)
Stefano Rulli (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 September 2004 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Meeting his handicapped son for the first time, a young father attempts to forge a relationship with the teenager.

Plot Keywords:

Hospital | Friendship | Muscular Dystrophy | Love | Father Son Relationship

Awards:

10 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

Kim Rossi Stuart	...	Gianni
Charlotte Rampling	...	Nicole
Andrea Rossi	...	Paolo
Alla Faerovich	...	Nadine
Pierfrancesco Favino	...	Alberto
Manuel Katzy	...	Taxi driver
Michael Weiss	...	Andreas
Ingrid Appenroth	...	Hospital warden
Dimitri Süsin	...	Boy watching TV
Thorsten Schwarz	...	Male nurse
Eric Neumann	...	Playground boy
Dirk Zippa	...	Young man on wheelchair
Barbara Koster-Chari	...	Nurse
Anita Bardeleben	...	Doctor
Ralf Schlesener	...	Newspaper seller

Also Known As:

The Keys to the House (Australia) (Canada: English title) (International: English title) (UK) (USA)
Die Hausschlüssel (Germany)
Les clefs de la maison (France)
The House Keys

Runtime:

105 min | UK:111 min | Australia:111 min

Country:

Italy | France | Germany

Language:

Italian | German | French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Brazil:12 (Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival) | Brazil:14 | Germany:o.Al. | Australia:PG | France:U | USA:PG | Italy:T | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG | Ireland:PG

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

ACHAB Film

Trivia:

This was Italy's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award in 2004. It did not make the final five.

Soundtrack:

Deus Do Fogo E Da Justiça

Life is not easy

This is the first Amelio movie to be released in the US, at least in a Film Festival setting, in over ten years since Lamerica. But the director's style is still memorable. The camera scans slowly the lost faces of the actors without pity or shame. There is no plastic, no trinkets, no nudging at the spectator. We are there watching and not, it's not really as straightforward as we'd want it.

As in "Stolen Children" or "Lamerica", the main character ambles on scene, uncertain of his role in the life of others or just very mistaken. It learns--maybe, the hard way, one feeling at the time. Kim Rossi Stuart takes the place of Enrico Lo Verso, with a similar style, eyes lost and the silence prevailing over revelatory dialog, but the star is his son in the movie, Andrea Rossi There are no cheap shot. There is no need to. Piety, compassion come from something deeper, and Amelio definitely gets to the grittier level of human emotion. Charlotte Rampling has an amazing role, as the mother of young handicapped woman and the symbolic chorus for the interior dialog of the protagonist. And the dialog is pure and scary as it can be.

It's refreshing to see such moving work that skillfully avoids all the traps of classic Hollywood tearjerkers. The movie reminded me rather of Kenzaburo Oe's "Teach Us to Outgrow our Madness", but it's actually inspired to Giuseppe Pontiggia's "Nati due Volte" (Born Twice), and Amelio pays homage both to the writer and the book in the course of the movie.