La pazza gioia
Directed by:
Paolo VirzìCinematography:
Vladan RadovicComposer:
Carlo VirzìCast:
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Anna Galiena, Micaela Ramazzotti, Valentina Carnelutti, Marco Messeri, Tommaso Ragno, Beatrice Schiros, Elena Lietti (more)Plots(1)
Paolo Virzì’s Like Crazy is a tale of friendship, as touching and compassionate as it is free-wheeling and kinetic. Met with universal acclaim for the extraordinary performances of its leads, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti, as well as the exceptional screenplay which manages to balance its complex characters with honesty, humour and true emotional depth, this is a touching and unique take on friendship, freedom and mental illness.Beatrice is a motor-mouthed fantasist, a self-styled billionaire countess who likes to believe she’s on intimate terms with world leaders. Donatella is a tattooed introvert, a fragile young woman locked in her own mystery. They are both patients at the Villa Biondi, a progressive but secure psychiatric clinic. Paolo Virzì’s new film tells the story of the unpredictable and moving friendship that develops between the two women as they flee the mental institution in search of love and happiness in the open-air nuthouse - the world of sane people. (Hi Gloss Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (3)
This kind of dramedy can be filmed only by the Italians. Only they have the kind of personalities that I haven’t encountered anywhere else in Europe. Either shouting, aggressive men who get annoyed by a speck of dust on a windowsill, or shrieking, crazy, suntanned women, who have an opinion about everything and would fight you to death if you contradicted them. In this case, you won’t meet the men but as for the women… you have to get ready for that. One of them is exactly the type of Italian woman I have described and the other one would be as well, if she wasn’t mentally devastated. It took me a while to get used to those characters but in the end I have to admit that during the road trip drama I was not bored at all, quite the contrary. A typical Italian drama portraying the lives of the locals.
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If I want to prove something, it doesn't matter what mental state I'm in. The characters presented here are not at all uninteresting, but I didn't find their story as good as it could have been. Yes, there is a quite successful gradation, something dark creeping into even the funny scenes, but overall, for me, it's rather average.
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Two completely different women, both carrying a painful affliction in their hearts, meet in an insane asylum. Despite their initial unpleasant encounter, they gradually become friends and during a trip together, about ten inmates manage to escape from the hospital. Thus begins a slightly crazy road movie, in which both Beatrice and Donatella long to journey towards their lost happiness, each in their own slightly different way. Eventually, however, they are reunited at the psychiatric clinic. While there are a few humorous moments in the story, it's overall a very sad film about the fate of two broken women who, under the right alignment of stars, could actually be happy. (65%)
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