Gianni e le donne (2011)

Directed by: Gianni Di Gregorio | 90 minutes | comedy | Actors: Gianni Di Gregorio, Valeria De Franciscis, Alfonso Santagata, Elisabetta Piccolomini, Valeria Cavalli, Aylin Prandi, Kristina Cepraga, Michelangelo Ciminale, Teresa Di Gregorio, Lilia Silvi, Gabriella Sborgi

Gianni lives in Rome, is in her 60s and retired, married and has a teenage daughter Teresa who still lives at home. He has his hands full taking care of his old mother (a strong interpretation of Valeria De Franciscis), who lives in a beautiful villa. She is in her nineties and has an extremely flamboyant lifestyle, playing cards for money with her equally old friends and drinking champagne in large quantities. She enjoys it to the fullest. Gianni surreptitiously tries to sell her villa to get some money before she runs out, but Mother sees through his nefarious plans.

Mother dear is still a very cunning aunt who does not shy away from abusing her son sometimes. She constantly sends him out to do all kinds of errands, uses him as a sort of servant at her card and drink parties and drums him up at the most inopportune moments when the TV doesn’t work properly. Gianni lets it all roll over like a good nerd. Meanwhile, Gianni is reminded by his friend Alfonso (Alfonso Santagata) that – as befits a real Italian man – he really should have a girlfriend. We follow Gianni and his friend in their adventures, which of course are not always successful.

A parody of the life of the Italian man is made in an atmospheric way. Gianni walks with his dog, talks to other old men and searches for a new interpretation for the needs talked to him by his friend. Of course, many beautiful atmospheric pictures of ancient Rome are not missing in the images.

The story itself is simple in structure, but there is absolutely nothing to worry about. At the same time it is so charming that many will fall for it anyway. The old ladies clearly have a lot of fun in it and sometimes have a wonderful time, they have not forgotten acting. Gianni is simply a wonderful man who, in all his naivety, boyish innocence and melancholic disposition, finally manages to win the hearts of women.

Director Gianni di Gregorio made his directorial debut with the much acclaimed ‘Pranzo di ferragosto’, from which we see many actors again. He takes the lead himself and really knows how to bring the figure of Gianni to life.

‘Gianni e le donne’ is light-hearted, but has a serious undertone about the consequences of aging. The film is light-hearted but charming at the same time because we often have to smile at Gianni’s innocent escapades in all his disarming clumsiness. The events are especially amusing because of the slightly ironic angle and the subtle humor with which the machismo of the Italian man is deliciously and with the necessary clichés. Just a nice, casual and wonderfully relaxing summer film.