Manuale d'amore (2005)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Giovanni Veronesi

Writers:

Vincenzo Cerami (story)
Ugo Chiti (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 March 2005 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

A comedy in Italian

Plot:

Four intertwined episodes on the joys and sorrows of love. |

Plot Keywords:

Love | Husband Wife Relationship | Marital Crisis | Love At First Sight | Male Female Relationship

Awards:

5 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Carlo Verdone	...	Goffredo
Luciana Littizzetto	...	Ornella
Silvio Muccino	...	Tommaso
Sergio Rubini	...	Marco
Margherita Buy	...	Barbara
Jasmine Trinca	...	Giulia
Rodolfo Corsato	...	Alberto Marchese
Dino Abbrescia	...	Gabriele
Dario Bandiera	...	Piero
Luis Molteni	...	Goffredo's lawyer
Sabrina Impacciatore	...	Luciana
Anita Caprioli	...	Livia
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Elda Alvigini	...	Rosanna
Roberto Andreucci	...	Ornella's lawyer
Lavinia Biagi	...	Miriam
Marco Casciotti	...	Checco
Eugenia Costantini	...	Carlotta
Clotilde De Spirito	...	Rachele
Michele Di Mauro	...	Sandrone
Ida Eccher	...	Teaching assistant
Pier Luigi Ferrari	...	Recruitment agency manager
Rocco Fulcheri	...	Lapo
Giuseppe Gandini	...	Giorgio
Manuela Gatti	...	Pediatric girl's mother
Donato Giannini	...	DJ
Giada Giuliani	...	Livia's daughter
Giacomo Gonnella	...	Luciana's husband
Giovanni Luca Izzo	...	Barman
Maura Leone	...	Mamma Asilo
Francesco Mandelli	...	Dante
Mauro Marchese	...	Paolo
Alberto Marozzi	...	Waiter
Roberta Mastromichele	...	Monica
Alessandro Mistichelli	...	Bookshop owner
Anna Orso	...	Margherita's mother
Ginestra Paladino	...	Katia
Mario Patanè	...	Pediatric girl's father
Andrea Pernazza	...	Andrea
Mario Rellini	...	Wolfgang Freedmann
Stefano Sarcinelli	...	Pelato's boyfriend
Roberta Sferzi	...	Cinzia
Leontine Snel	...	Instructor
Roberto Streccioni	...	Old man on telephone
Jacopo Urbani	...	Achille
Guilio Volpe	...	Estate agent

Also Known As:

Manual of Love (USA) (festival title)

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | Germany:o.Al. | Brazil:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Italy:T | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud)

Filming Locations:

Piazza Navona, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Filmauro

Movie Connections:

Followed by Manuale d'amore 2 (Capitoli successivi) (2007)

Not profound but smooth, flawless, well written and acted

This is a fine Italian comedy that I would recommend to anyone. The movie is about the several steps of love relationships: falling in love, crisis, infidelity, parting. Each of these four steps is represented by a couple: Muccino-Trinca fall in love, Rubino-Buy are on the verge of disaster, Abbrescia is unfaithful to Littizzetto (and vice versa), while Verdone is mad about losing his woman (but will finally fall in love with another one, thus closing the circle).

The feature is structured in almost separate episodes, which is a reference to many "commedie all'italiana" of the '60s. Nevertheless the stories are ingenuously linked among each other and the writing is so skillful that the movie never loses its pace. Plus, it is very well acted. Verdone and Buy are almost perfect, and so is Littizzetto. (This actress became famous thanks to TV shows, but is actually very good and definitely deserves to play a dramatic role to show how credible she is and how versatile).

Verdone proves brave by accepting a character both ridiculous and tragic. He is a physician who has been abandoned by his wife and tries to re-build his life out of its pieces. Maybe the script is a bit excessive here, as it is not clear whether we have to laugh at or identify with him. Anyway he redeems himself in a beautiful ending almost reminding of "La dolce vita"'s.

The episode that I liked the least is the first. It avoids most of the stupid clichés of Italian comedies for teenagers, but why then all those swearwords? They are just annoying and don't add anything to the story and the characters. Plus, the episode is kind of unrealistic.

Obviously, this is not a revolutionary movie, but it is very funny and, most of all, not spoiled by silly character parts as so many Italian movies are.