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:

Boy | Hospital | Medical Test | Dancing | Suffering

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:

Gianni Amelio was commissioned to make the film by Italian television who wanted an adaptation of Giuseppe Pontiggia's book "Born Twice". Amelio was particularly inspired to follow the project through after meeting Andrea Rossi, who plays Paolo.

Soundtrack:

Quanti Anni Hai

All the body can take

'Le chiavi di casa'(Home's keys) is an Italian movie about a father and his 15-year old disabled child. The boy can't walk properly, his arms seem permanently bent in a 90 degree angle, his upper back is slightly hunched forwards. The movie is tough, unsentimental, and all the more moving for that.

The father Gianni, has never seen Paolo, his child. The reason will be unveiled in the second half of the movie and it enables the viewer to identify with the father: we get to know Paolo at the same pace his father does. They are on a trip to a Berlin hospital dedicated to rehabilitative therapies and treatment for the disabled.

It's a journey back to a lost fatherhood for Gianni and it's shown through the physical rapport between father and son. The first time Gianni meets Paolo he doesn't so much as touch him. The boy is asleep in his train compartment. The camera doesn't show us his face. Gianni is hesitant about his role as a father and they're still strangers.

In the next 'phase' Gianni tends to Paolo, he helps him to walk, to go to the bathroom, he washes him.... Then a crucial scene comes: Gianni witnesses a therapy session. Paolo walks back and forth aided by a kind of cane on small wheels. The process is painful and Paolo suffers. It is at this moment that Gianni acknowledges his son's body as one not to be aided or 'corrected' but as one capable of suffering and therefore, of affection too. This realization culminates in a beautiful scene in which Gianni starts by arranging Paolo's hair and then kisses him and caresses him every other second as if the boy were a 'cagnolino', a little pet dog. But this is not a rosy postcard.

At the Berlin hospital Gianni meets a French lady (Charlotte Rampling) who has a severely disabled daughter, she's been tending to her every need for over 20 years. This lady has a tendency to be brutally honest without ever really being impolite, but in one of their encounters she tries to put a brave face on things when Gianni asks her how she can look so serene after all she's been through. She doesn't tell all the truth and that's a crime that an actress as talented as Rampling cannot leave unpunished, and I guess that's why Amelio wanted her for the part. The next scene is formally simple and elegantly executed and we see in Rampling's face and hear in her lines what her character has been through during all those years, how her body has also suffered.

The three main actors are great, Kim Rossi, Rampling and the kid, Andrea. Kudos to Amelio, the director.