Those Happy Years

This film is about a 70s liberal artist, the art he creates, his family, which in essence is part of his creation and his wife who is continously running after him. He comes across as selfish and unsympathetic and to a lesser degree also his children The whole premise feels false and despite trying to like it, I couldn't care less about the characters.

Having any long term relationship can become exceptionally complicated when you confuse and expose them by getting 'involved' with another person (or persons).. either just for sex, or to get 'even.' This is a pretty well made and good little film.. the casting is spot-on, each actor in their respective roles are near perfect.. both in their choice for the part, as well as the individual performances (Micaela Ramazzotti is just terrific). It can at times bog down a bit, but it's not a huge distraction. It's not a happy scenario being played out.. and before you reach the end, you have to believe it might end badly for either or both of them. I wrote a major portion of this review before watching the final scenes.. now, having seen the entire film would agree it concludes with the most meaningful outcome.

Had the opportunity to see this at the world premiere in Toronto (TIFF13) - the film completely surprised me and surpassed my expectations. It's a very character driven film with real-life day-to-day complexities, but the director manages to add plenty of humour in the film to keep it super entertaining. Partially an autobiographical, so the director/writer is reliving his life through the movie but of course many universal elements have been added to attract a wider / mainstream audience. Met the director at TIFF - amazing person. His answers to the q&a were awesome and there is great advice in the movie too, but I don't want to give anything away! I want to see it again. This will be in my top 3 TIFF films for 2013 for sure.

Oh my god, this one is hard to review... Yes, the acting is good throughout, there is nothing wrong with the cinematography, the dialogs are not bad, the characterization, etc, etc... The problem however is that this is in essence a boring movie, 90 minutes of a story about nothing. We never get to care about any of the protagonists, what happens to them or not. Very much like the art of the main character, the movie is an abstraction we are supposed to call art, because some critic or other says so. In the movie, even the artist is waiting to hear from the critic if his accomplishments are to be 'art' or not.

Furthermore, if the film was to be a depiction of the roaring seventies, it is lacking in all aspects, it is far too much engaged in a mass of unnecessary details to paint for us anything of real relevance. I read somewhere that this film is supposed to be an autobiographical biopic of Lucchetti's childhood. If this is the case, I can understand how it can be interesting and compelling for him and his immediate family, but hardly to anyone else.

This is a realistic, nuanced story- written & directed beautifully. The cast formed an ensemble of the highest acting quality, very believable. It made my heart ache, both with uplifting hope yet also with yearning sadness. We were drawn into their world, stayed in it until the movie ended, and beyond. I still think about it. Anyone wanting action packed plot, supernatural stuff or pyrotechnics will hate it. It's a finely drawn, slow burning story about an intense marital love affair, a family that is loving, fascinating, close yet falling apart. About a time & places in recent history. About what it means to be an artist with a spouse & children - both from the point of view of the artist, but also through the eyes of his wife, and children.