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Our Life

La nostra vita

Italy, France

2010

98 Min
Color
2.35:1
Italian
  • Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
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DIR Daniele Luchetti

EXEC Matteo De Laurentiis, Gina Gardini

PROD Marco Chimenz, Giovanni Stabilini, Riccardo Tozzi

SCR Daniele Luchetti, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli

DP Claudio Collepiccolo

CAST Elio Germano, Raoul Bova, Isabella Ragonese, Luca Zingaretti, Stefania Montorsi, Giorgio Colangeli, Awa Ly

ED Mirco Garrone

PROD DES Giancarlo Basili

MUSIC Franco Piersanti

SOUND Bruno Pupparo

Cannes (In Competition): Best Actor, London (Cinema Europa), São Paulo (International Perspective), Chicago, Rotterdam (Spectrum)

Synopsis

Claudio is a blue-collar builder, almost blissfully happy with his ordinary family life, with his wife and two children. Then, tragedy strikes and Claudio sets off on an obsessive quest to become rich and successful by taking on an almost impossible-to-complete contract to construct an apartment block in record time. Claudio uses all his own, his friend’s and his family’s resources to try and succeed, while in fact coming closer and closer to disaster and ruin. Anchored by an intense and very impressive performance by Elio Germano as Claudio, Our Life is a gritty, yet warm and human story. Almost like an Italian Ken Loach, director Daniele Luchetti depicts authentically working class life in Italy and the struggles of one man to rise above the corruption and compromises that beset him. Following on from Luchetti’s acclaimed previous film My Brother is an Only Child this is another arresting film; powerfully emotive, cinematic and satisfying. —BFI

Director

Original

Daniele Luchetti

Daniele Luchetti (born 25 July 1960) is an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor. He was born in Rome. He debuted as assistant director for Nanni Moretti in Bianca (1983) and La messa è finita (1985). Luchetti’s first film as director was Domani accadrà of 1988, which won a David di Donatello as best debuting film and received a mention in the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.

His subsequent work was the successful Il portaborse (1991), featuring Silvio Orlando as the ghost-writer of a ruthless politician, played by Nanni Moretti. It was seen as a forecast of the Mani Pulite corruption scandal that struck Italy the following year. The film won four David di Donatello awards. Luchetti’s theatre spectacle Sottobanco, inspired to Domenico Starnone’s works, was later turned into a feature film entitled La scuola (“The School”, 1995).

His most recent films are Mio fratello è figlio unico (2006), and La nostra vita (2010), which is scheduled to compete for the Palme d’Or at… read more

Wall

Displaying 4 wall posts.
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sergigno

10Jul12

merita 4 stelle per la recitazione di Germano!

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Daniel S.

30Jan12

Three Italian Academy awards and five other nominations. Interesting film about actual Italian society and the problems ordinary people have to face nowadays. The solutions, legal or illegal, they find are always morally tenable. Recommended.

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Barbara Giambartolomei

6Jun10

a little bit depressing but Germano is great...

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Taste of Tea

22May10

I really enjoyed this film - a powerful performance by Elio Germano. Hopefully it will get UK distribution...

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W184

Cannes 2010. Awards

By David Hudson on May 22, 2010

Fantastic. "Surreal," says Apichatpong Weerasethakul. He's just won the Palme d'Or for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Grand

read article
W184

Cannes 2010. Daniele Luchetti's "Our Life"

By David Hudson on May 20, 2010

"One of the most purely baffling entries in this year's Competition, Daniele Luchetti's would-be melodrama sets up all the ingredients

read article

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Realismos e cotidiano

By chicofi​reman on October 20, 2010

Há uma série de acertos neste filme de Daniele Luchetti, do bom Meu Irmão é Filho Único. Ele explora um melodrama familiar, mas filma a história com câmera realista, criando uma dualidade curiosa entre…  read review

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