Competition review - MIA MADRE by Nanni Moretti

Moretti faces mortality once again in his latest, excellent and mature work, Mia Madre by Nanni Moretti, in competition at the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

 

Nanni Moretti's four year absence from the big screen felt for much longer. He is simply one of the most distinctive filmmakers around today, and his lengthy gaps between films always leave a deafening silence in world cinema. Mia Madre, his latest offering, is neither his most provocative nor his most ambitious work to date, but it is near damn perfect. It is the story of two siblings as they face mortality in taking care of their hospitalised elderly mother, in her dying days. Because death is a natural part of life, and life goes on, Margherita, the female filmmaker whose life we follow, carries on with her work on set filming a her new project with a string proletariat statement, takes care of her daughter who is flunking latin and goes through other simple everyday struggles.

 

Margerita Buy delivers a true powerhouse performance in this central role, the type of performance that was required. She is an imposing presence on the screen, sensible to both her character's strengths and vulnerabilities. She carries a large weight of the film on her shoulders, by even orchestrating the tone changes in individual sequences through sudden absent minded blank stares, tired eyes and concerned looks even in the most outrageous of situations - such as her interactions with her self obsessed American leading actor played by an histrionic John Turturro, from whom most of the film's hilarity comes from. Moretti himself plays a small role as the other sibling, who is on the verge of making a drastic lifestyle change, beginning with a career change.

Margerita Buy is an extension of a very complete character examination, which Nanni Moretti presents in great detail. Aside from it being a most excellent example of female representation in cinema, it is whole because it also allows us a direct peak inside her dreams aside from focusing on every aspect of her life - not only her work life and family life, but also her love life and sex life - even her dreams, through sequences of understated poetry. 

 

The devil in this case is in the detail. One night, she wakes up from one of her nightmares involving her mother to find her house is flooded. In another instance, she aims to fight a sudden sadness by calling up the man whom she recently broke up with, and the reason we can very well assume, are more sexual than romantic, therefore shamelessly selfish. She is not perfect, but she is very real real.

 

Overall, the film doesn't have the tension or urgence of The Son's Room, despite dealing with the theme of death. It is far more introspective and meditative, but the overall impression is that the send off given to her mother is as peaceful and happy as they come. Nevertheless, Mia Madre takes particular care in representing the delicate situation by remaining true to the natural flow of everyday life. And it is represented by Moretti's usual characteristic filmmaking language, that often abruptly sees the abrupt alternation of funny sequences with deeply dramatic ones. Because, after all, as it's well documented, Moretti absolutely hates rhetoric.