La seconda notte di nozze (2005) Online

From beginning to end, an extraordinary movie. It's a poem translated into film. The nostalgia for the old times is subtle and appropriate, enveloping every scene almost with pervading accuracy.

Post war Italy, practically derelict and on its knees, where everyone is trying to survive no matter how and yet life goes implacably on.

Every frame is perfection. The script is simply delicious, so different, so quietly developed and so attractively displayed for our enjoyment, compelling us to be interested in the life of every single character.

And the Italian language spoken with such precision and accuracy that not a single word is lost or missed, by the whole cast!

Katia Ricciarelli --the well known Italian soprano-- as a fantastic actress here, playing the mother of a not very nice character --Neri Marcorè, splendid-- a son totally devoid of any standards of morality.

The half wit in this tale, fantastically portrayed by Antonio Albanese; the two old ladies, with incredibly beautiful and robust voices --Marisa Merlini and Angela Luce-- etching two impeccably funny characters.

Robert Madison --Enzo Fiermonte, the once 'flash in the pan' new promise of the screen-- believable in a very difficult role (in real life he's the son of Guy Madison) and of course, the Director --Pupi Avati-- of this miraculously simple and embraceable film; yes, embraceable because it's like and old friend, with scenes and dialogues that we already lived in another life, in another era, like a sudden smell that brings Goldilocks memories to the present.

What an excellent touch Avati has to produce a truly different and natural story with every day life components and yet passionately absorbing!

A must see in my agenda.

LA SECONDA NOTTE DI NOZZE is yet another atrociously downbeat and offbeat Avati movie; the sources of Avati's cinema are essentially dramatic—a dramatic situation, freakish characters, a heartrending misery …. I have found this movie even more downbeat than the rest of the Avati outings. The world it depicts, in a stern light, is one of injured persons—injured by prostitution, illness, malice, greed, etc.. Avati follows his habit of unmasking the illusions, of uncovering the true nature of people, actions, etc.. And in LA SECONDA … his characters are exceptionally nasty and dirty morally.

The director dedicates his movie A TUTTI I BAMBINI CHE FECERO UNA GRANDA LUCE.

LA SECONDA … has several characters—a mentally clouded man and his two care-taking aunts, the whore he loved since he was a kid and who won't give him what she regularly gave to literally everyone—and cruelly stops him from feeling her tit, a scoundrel who's the whore's son, a few other people. In Avati's world, pals, the goodness shines with a heartbreaking, alien and almost chilling light; a world of reptiles, that knows no stops. Otherwise, Avati is a satirist, and he finds some humorous touches; Liliana's son seems particularly repulsive, a creepy sickening scoundrel who cheats everybody.

In this particular movie, the goodness is sinisterly associated with mental clouding. The notion of presumably redeeming love is itself grievously perverted—an ill man's lust for a shameless whore—though a whore appreciated as 'pretty fresh' by a driver—a fat placid blonde, for those who did not see the movie.

Italy was a destroyed country after WWII. As this story begins, we witness the precarious situation of those days in the 1940s, where thousands were made homeless as a result of the intense bombing by the Allied forces. Nothing was easy then. Take young Nino Ricci. He is living with his widowed mother, Lilliana, in a church that was damaged. Nino has to use his wit as a small time thief to help her make ends meet.

In another part of the country, Giordano Ricci, is engaged in finding land mines and bombs left all over the countryside. His job is to dismantle and detonate them. He lives with two aunts that want the best for their favorite nephew. When an unexpected letter arrives for Giordano, he wants to open it privately, out of his aunt's disapproving eyes. The letter if from Lilliana, who was also from the area. As it turns out, she is the sister-in-law of Giordano. Although not asking for help, directly, she goes on to inform of her hard life in Bologna. In Giordano's heart he had waited for this letter for a long time.

Giordano makes up his mind to ask his brother's widow and his nephew to come, providing they can get to Puglia on their own. Nino decides to steal the car that was entrusted to him for the trip South. The aunts are horrified because they realize their nephew was secretly in love with Lilliana. The family life, as they knew it would start to unravel. As the new relatives arrive, everything goes bad, including Nino, who steals money from his employer by seducing his newlywed daughter. But Giordano forgives everything because he has finally found the love of his life.

Pupi Avati, the immensely talented Italian director, knows a thing or two about his countrymen. With this delightful take on family life after the Great War, he consolidates himself as one of the most original storytellers working in the Italian cinema today. It is a joy to sit through his films, as is the case with this one. His hero, Giordano, is a simple man. His life has been nothing because he never found love. Secretly he always longed for the one woman he couldn't have, now available, because of the tragedy his country went through.

Antonio Albanese is a fine comedian. His Giordano is a kind man willing to give everything he has for the woman he always loved. A surprise casting of Katia Ricciarelli, the excellent soprano, as Lilliana, paid off because she brings a tender touch to the story. Neri Marcore is also effective playing Nino, the scoundrel nephew. Angela Luce and Marisa Merlini make a delicious duo playing the old Ricci aunts.