Mia Madre

Echoes of Fellini's 8½ can be found in Nanni Moretti's Mia Madre, which centers on an Italian film director named Margherita (Margherita Buy), who is struggling to complete her latest movie—a drama about labor unrest at a factory that was recently sold to an American entrepreneur, who intends to lay off a large part of the workforce. Margherita must simultaneously deal with her mother Ada (Giulia Lazzarini) being hospitalized for cardiac issues, demands from her teenage daughter Livia (Beatrice Mancini), and problems with her own boyfriend Vittorio (Enrico Ianniello), who is also an actor in Margherita's film. These domestic issues imperil her ability to finish the project—which is further burdened by her American star Barry (John Turturro), a prima donna who keeps bungling scenes and forgetting lines. Moretti juxtaposes realistic scenes involving Margherita's family and the film crew with dreamlike sequences recalling her younger self. Moretti's sedate, undemonstrative style cannot compete with the wild exuberance that Fellini brought to his portrait of a director in crisis, but in its quiet subdued way Mia Madre does strike an emotional chord, enhanced by Buy's subtle and multifaceted performance. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include “Just a Movie: On the Set” (43 min.), deleted scenes (10 min.), the character segment “John Turturro as Barry Huggins” (5 min.), “The Torture of an Actor” outtakes (4 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an engaging Italian film.] (F. Swietek)