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Never more than hair’s breadth from hilarious, Gianni Di Gregorio’s masterful central performance is reminiscent of Jacques Tati and Nanni Moretti, says Alexander Ballinger.

Di Gregorio’s dazzling debut Mid-August Lunch charmed the critics and was a sleeper success but the question was, could his next film measure up? Rest assured it does and perhaps it’s no surprise since Di Gregorio is no ordinary director: it took the tenacious 62-year-old Roman eight years to realise Mid-August Lunch after a lifetime treading the Italian boards.

Salt of Life returns him centre stage to Rome’s colourful Trastevere quarter in another taut comedy of family manners. Again he plays a put-upon character called Gianni contending with his extravagant mother (the 95-year-old Valeria De Franciscis, upstaging her unforgettable performance in Mid-August Lunch). This time round he’s also living with a disapproving wife and daughter and, egged on by family lawyer (Alfonso Santagata), he spends most of the film in a desperate late middle-aged search for romance.

Never more than hair’s breadth from hilarious, Di Gregorio’s masterful performance – reminiscent of Jacques Tati and Nanni Moretti – is aided by deft cinematographer Gogò Bianchi (filming in tiny interiors) and a wry soundtrack conjured up by Ratchev and Carratello.

 

Alexander Ballinger on 18th October 2011
View all 20 of Alexander Ballinger's reviews