La ternura

It's rare to find a film with such a complex argument that holds attention for two hours and avoids all the pitfalls of sentiment - and cynicism. I would class this one as must see.

After his Porte Aperte and Lamerica, two of the most impressive European films of the last decades I was looking forward to a new Gianni Amelio and I wasn't wrong.

Tenerezza /Tenderness is not a big statement like those. It's a careful account of the life of retired Neapolitan lawyer Amelio regular Renato Carpentieri, first found pulling out his drips and leaving hospital. His daughter Giovanna Mezzogiorno asks whether he was honest and a clerk tells her "It's hard to be a good lawyer and honest too."

We kick off with Mezzogiorno making an unappealing entrance ratting out the Arab in the glassed in court room dock she's translating for. Even her own child doesn't much like her. However after we've spent two hours with her father we understand her a whole lot better - one of the film's many surprises and a considerable achievement.

Any description will be a spoiler. The film's impact depends on its unpredictability. Greta Scacchi's character provides one real shock.

A couple more super stars of the current Italian cinema, Micaela Ramazzotti and Elio Germano figure and the 'scope camera-work is Luca Bigazzi again, here in top form. It's all a class act.

One of his last films, the great Comencini 's "bueno natale ,bueno anno " dealt with old people rejected by their sons and daughters .

"La Tenerezza" inverses the roles : it's a grumpy old man who cannot stand his offspring anymore and severs links with them ; he meets a couple with children and one may think he's starting over and has found himself a new family ,but it's more complex than that ; in fact the father,Fabio ,is a neurotic,who cannot relate to his children ,like him;his behavior becomes more and more worrying : the way he treats the unfortunate street peddler comes aside as a shock .Too bad the character is not more developed for he 's far more interesting than that of Lorenzo's daughter :all that concerns the biological children is conventional ,melodramatic ; the first scene which echo the last one (the interpret job) is a cliché to end all the clichés.

But the real meat of the movie lies in Lorenzo's relationship with his new "family" ; he makes their tragedy his and his vision of Michela who would have survived the horror and tells him she's got her own family gives the movie a fantasy side. Besides , whereas one does not feel very much for his own children's distress, one cannot prevent oneself from admiring this crooked former lawyer ,some kind of modern Robin Hood.

Beautiful Italian psychological family drama. This intelligent and powerful film is superbly written, directed and acted. High quality piece of cinematography.