Silvio Soldini's GARIBALDI'S LOVERS juggles a heap of stuff to get a look at modern-day Italy

The new movie from popular Italian master Silvio Soldini (Bread and Tulips, Agata and the Storm, Days and Clouds and Come Undone) finds the filmmaker in a more playful and magical mood than we've heretofore observed. GARIBAL-DI'S LOVERS -- rotten title, this! The original Italian (Il comandante e la cicogna) translates as The Commandant and the Stork, so maybe, as Garibaldi was indeed a fighter and military man, The Soldier and the Stork might have made better sense, while following the alliterative style of the original -- juggles so many themes, ideas and stories that you often fear for its (and your own) ability to keep them straight. It's a credit to the skill of Soldini that he not only does this but offers quite a bit of fun and thought in the process.

In this film, Signore Soldini (shown at left) gives us everything from a modern-day Italian family, struggling to get by, to sleazy lawyers and their clients, an artist trying to get the back pay owed her on a project, online bullying and pornography, talking statues, a ghost, and -- yes -- that stork (who proves quite the odd charmer).

The filmmaker begins with two of those statues, Garibaldi, from his high post above the crowd, to the more modern and on-the-ground Cazzaniga (I am guessing this is Gian Mario Cazzaniga, the still-living Socialist philosopher/politician/labor movement leader), who argue and quip. Garibaldi (and the film) looks at modern-day Italy and finds it grossly wanting -- "Maybe," the leader laments, "I should never have joined north and south" -- and we viewers see a few examples of exactly why.

Then we get to the actual story -- or stories: there are a lot of them -- which takes in all (and more) of what I mentioned above. These tales are certainly worthwhile, and the various actors who portray the characters are in fine form. The only trouble is that these maybe half dozen stories, even though they are all or mostly connected, are given such short shrift that they don't accrue much weight. Any one of them could have been used as the basis for an entire movie.

And yet, so generally clever is the writing (the excellent Marco Pettenello contributed to the screenplay) the give-and-take between the statues, the artist and her landlord, the lawyer and his client, the young man and the stork, and particularly the family's father and the ghost) that we tag along happily. If you're going to do a ghost these days, then it needs to offer something a little different, and this one certainly does (the ghost's description of "class" differences in heaven is hilarious!). Most of these stories add a twist to the expected (even the cyber-bullying/porn goes into areas that are a tad unusual).

The film does keep its pulse on Italy's own economic/social/political pulse, so if you've at all followed that country's situation over the past few years, you'll find a lot to think about (and fret over). Though the film itself, as an entertainment and a pretty good one, uses most of this as fodder for charm and laughter.

The excellent cast helps, too. Look for Alba Rohrwacher (above, right, and four photos up, and as usual, different enough to be nearly unrecognizable) as the artist; Giuseppe Battiston (two photos up) as the landlord; Valerio Mastandrea (at left, three photos up) as the put-upon dad; Claudia Gerini (three photos up) as a particularly gorgeous ghost; and Luca Zingaretti (above, left) as the shady lawyer. The kids (that's Luca Dirodi, making his film debut, below, with a special friend), as well as the rest of the supporting cast, are fine, too.

From Film Movement and running a healthy 108 minutes (though it might have been even longer to incorporate more ooomph into things), Garibaldi's Lovers hits the street on DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, January 21-- for rental and/or purchase.

Soldini's COME UNDONE lets Rohrwacher and Favino raise our temperatures a bit

Because his first experience with truly sensual film came via Italy (La Dolce Vita, Rocco and His Brothers, L'Avventura), TrustMovies finds it odd that when Italian filmmakers these days place sexuality front and center, the results prove somehow less than fulfilling. Last year's The Man Who Loves (shown at the FSLC's Open Roads) was one example, and now we have COME UNDONE (Cosa voglio di più), the new movie from one of Italy's more popular (and currently exportable) filmmakers, Silvio Soldini (shown below), who earlier gave us Bread and Tulips, Agata and the Storm and Days and Clouds.

What is the reason for this?  Does sexuality/sensuality, when shown as a part -- even a very large part -- of an entire life work better than when it becomes nearly the only subject at hand? Perhaps. (TM wasn't all that fond of the initially-hot but finally-tiresome 9-1/2 Weeks, either. In any case, Signore Soldini has made a much better film than did Adrian Lyne.)

First of all, this Italian director captures quite well the easy-going, childless marriage of Anna and Alessio -- Alba Rohrwacher (above, right) and Giussepe Battiston, above left -- and the not-going-so-well marriage of Domenico and Miriam (Pierfrancesco Favino and Teresa Saponangelo). Money problem plague the latter, though it is the former's Anna who take the first step in initiating the affair with Domenico. As co-writer and director, Soldini's details are often on the mark -- particularly those of the tell-tale swimming attire that figures into things, and how aware one's co-workers can be when something's amiss.

Once the affair heats up, however, it can only go forward or end, and so midway the movie begins to vamp a bit to kill time. (Running two hours, as it does, there's a little too much time to effectively kill.) Back and forth we go: She's out, and then back in; he's out and then back in. For younger viewers who have not endured this sort of thing countless times already, there may indeed be some surprise and a bigger payoff. Others of us will have to content ourselves with the very good performances of actors who are always a pleasure to view.

Rohrwacher and Favino are two of Italy's most talented, award-laden and sought-after performers. Favino is also one of the country's hottest leading men, though this film, I believe, marks Rohrwacher's first foray into heavy-duty nudity and sex. She acquits herself splendidly, and may be the only actress I can think of who, within a couple of years' time, could have managed to play -- with utter truthfulness -- a psychologically handicapped high school girl (Giovanna's Father), a barely-educated, mountain-village heroine of WWII (The Man Who Will Come) and a role like this one. She's a treasure, and -- physically and talent-wise -- comparisons to Meryl Streep would not be out of order, though I do not know if Ms Rohrwacher does accents.

For his part Favino (above, right), whom you may have seen earlier in El Alamein, Saturn in Opposition and The Unknown Woman (plus a few American films such as Miracle at St. Anna, Night at the Museum, and The Chronicles of Narnai: Prince Caspian), is equally fine. He captures the neediness of this guy, as well as the sheer physical joy of losing oneself (while forgetting those problems on the home front) in the arms (and other areas) of someone new. One quibble: given the full-frontal we see of Rohrwacher, more of Favino's body on display would have seemed reasonable and equitable -- not to mention pleasurable for some of us.

Mr. Battiston is wonderful as Anna's jovial, fat and very patient husband, and though Ms. Saponangelo (above, left) gets saddled with the grousing wife, she does it justifiably and well. All in all, Come Undone is a perfectly adequate example -- with subtitles -- of the oooh, hot infidelity! genre. The movie opens this Friday, December 3, in New York at the Quad Cinema, Manhattan, and the IndieScreen, Brooklyn.