The Italian Cinema Days concluded after two weeks of screenings and discussions.
The event once again witnessed success with over 4000 attendees.
The audience and youth awards had the same winner: “La pazza gioia” by Paolo Virzì, which will also receive significant recognition this Monday at the David di Donatello awards, the Italian equivalent of the Césars.
La pazza gioia, the comedy full of madness!
The intelligent comedy by Paolo Virzì featuring two splendid actresses, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti, was presented at the 32nd Italian Cinema Days.
La pazza gioia by Paolo Virzì is arguably the best Italian comedy of the past year and was presented yesterday at the Espace Magnan in Nice during the 32nd Italian Cinema Days.
The credit goes especially to the marvelous actresses, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti, playing Beatrice and Donatella, two women with mental disorders who plan an eccentric escape from their therapeutic community in a Tuscan villa.
Indeed, accustomed to neurotic roles that fit her like a glove, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi is perfect as a mythomaniac with bipolar disorder, claiming to be a doctor and countess, abandoned by a lawyer husband with high society connections, once rich, out of her mind, in the style of Valentina Cortese. But Micaela Ramazzotti is also credible in a very thin body, covered in tattoos, portraying the wounded Donatella, depressed and silent, with the anguish of a son given up for adoption and a mother incapable of love (Anna Galiena).
Their journey towards freedom has something fresh and genuine, a redemption of their existential anxieties. Despite their differences, they share a bond forged by common pain, a mutual support that helps them understand themselves better, offering hope for living with awareness.
Written by the director with Francesca Archibugi, who makes a cameo in the film within the film where the two protagonists burst in, La pazza gioia is a sunny road movie, more sentimental than other Virzì films but avoids becoming pathetic or cliché-ridden in depicting mental distress.
Presented last year at the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes, La pazza gioia won five Nastri d’Argento in Italy.
Roberto Schinardi
