For her third outing as a triple-threat (writer-director-actress) Valeria Bruni Tedeschi turns again to the roots of her own life, roots she explored first in her writing-directing debut Il plus facile pour une chameau ... which was a huge popular success. Once again her real-life mother Marisi Tedeschi is on hand in the role of ... well, yes, the mother of the central character (Valeria) and this time she spends a good deal of screen time on the illness of her brother (in real life Tedeschi's brother died in early died just a few years ago. For a beautiful woman Tedeschi is not afraid to show herself in a bad light, appearing time and again in drab clothes and ill-fitting ugly boots, and once again she displays a sure hand behind the camera, though it must be said that on all three films she has directed she has shared screen writing credit with Noemie Lvovsky (an accomplished director herself) who actually appeared in previous titles. This film was in the running for the Palme d'Or at Cannes and deservedly so.
Review of A Castle in Italy
