Manuale d'amore (2005)

Four intertwined episodes on the joys and sorrows of love.

Director:

Giovanni Veronesi

Writers:

Vincenzo Cerami (story), Ugo Chiti (screenplay)

Stars:

Carlo Verdone, Luciana Littizzetto, Silvio Muccino

10 wins & 21 nominations.

Cast

Credited 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

Storyline

Four intertwined episodes on the joys and sorrows of love.

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Plot Keywords:

anthology film | omnibus film | portmanteau film | collection of short films | love | 

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Taglines:

A comedy in Italian

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Did You Know?

Connections

Followed by The Ages of Love (2011)

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Soundtracks

Noite e Luar
Written by Paolo Buonvino
Performed by Patrizia Laquidara

User Reviews

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.

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian English

Release Date:

18 March 2005 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Manual of Love

Filming Locations:

Piazza Navona, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$22,281,609

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmauro

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1