Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, February 22, 2024

CHE ORA È? (1989)

Slight, but tasty commedia all'italiana from Ettore Scola, something of a two-hander (with interruptions by guests) for Marcello Mastroianni and Massimo Troisi as absentee father and son at the tail end of compulsory military service, spending an awkward day trying to find something that holds them together.  Breaking out in petty squabbles on every subject, but always drifting back to walk thru an amusement park, take a short movie break, meet the current temporary girlfriend (‘how’s the kid in the sack?’), confess to marital problems, dangle a car & Rome apartment as proof of affection, order the whole menu at a waterfront seafood place (looks fabulous!), just be sure to never get below the surface.  That is until the day’s almost over and they stop at Troisi’s regular joint, a bar to make CHEERS look impersonal, where Mastroianni is quietly devastated watching his son take and give so much pleasure as long as Dad is out of the picture.  After all the obvious embarrassment of merely being together, and his high-handed controlling manner (Mastroianni unable to shut it down for more than five minutes), the realization of years wasted is crushing.  There’s another quick reproachment as they wait for the train to start up, but we know this too will be temporary.  Lucky if it can make it thru the end credits.  Scola, last in the line of great post Neo-Realist Golden Age Italian filmmakers, knows just how to set a proper strolling pace and how to walk up to, but not cross into caricature.  Especially impressive holding Mastroianni back since it’s more of an Alberto Sordi role.  While Troisi, known Stateside from IL POSTINO/’94 where he looks like a spectral ghost (he died of a heart condition hours after finishing the shoot), nails his slow-burn resistance without a false step.  The truths in here may be a little obvious, but the payoff unexpectedly moving.  NOTE: The title: ‘What’s the time?’ refers to a family heirloom given to Troisi, Granddad’s pocket watch.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Scola appears to get his angles wrong on a series of reverse shots between father & son till you realize Troisi is suddenly noticing how much his father’s face has aged since he last spent time with him.  How typical of Mastroianni to confidently go along with the deconstruction.  

No comments: