Subtitles:

English, none

Extras:

At the heart of Mia Madre is a trio of women: Livia (Beatrice Mancini), a teenager who has dealt with heartache unnoticed by her mother; Ada (Giulia Lazzarini), a grandmother hospitalised by an illness which is inexorably undermining her physical and mental strength; and Margherita, a film-maker overwhelmed by personal and professional pressures, brilliantly played by Margherita Buy in a performance worthy of Oscar nomination. It is upon Buy’s shoulders that much of the drama rests as she attempts to complete a Ken Loach-style political drama, “Noi siamo qui” (We Are Here), about the dignity of industrial action while coping with the decline of her mother and feared estrangement from her daughter. Juggling her time between the movie set, the hospital and the home, the doubt-racked Margherita drops in and out of focus, the film’s fluid timeline mirroring the watery ebb and flow of her dreams, memories, and experiences. Meanwhile, Margherita’s brother Giovanni (Moretti, significantly sidelining his own on-screen presence) simply steps away from work, taking a leave of absence to attend to his mother, but also to tend his own emotional wounds.

Nanni Moretti's latest film, Mia Madre, is elegant, understated, and discreetly moving. A personal, if not autobiographical film, Mia Madre chronicles the slow death of a filmmaker's mother as the director struggles to complete her movie. Moretti experienced the hospitalization and death of his own mother while he shot 2011's We Have a Pope, which may be why this film's rhythms and emotions feel so genuine.

Margherita (Margherita Buy) is the aforementioned director, a control freak who tends to be oblivious to the needs of those around her. Once she learns of her mother's condition, she is deeply shaken, while her brother Giovanni (played by Moretti) remains practical and accepting of the situation. Though cinematically portraying a filmmaker as self-involved and insensitive is hardly knew, Margherita is no caricature. She is completely believable as a well-established career woman who isn't used to hearing 'no,' but none of her anal-retentiveness seems to come from a place of meanness. Buy plays her with effortless pathos in a graceful performance that anchors the entire film.

Gary Tooze

December 2nd, 2015