Gianni Di Gregorio‘s Mid-August Lunch is a slight but charming tale of a cash strapped man played by and not altogether unrelated to Di Gregorio who finds himself as a character also called Gianni entertaining four elderly, eccentric and often wilful ladies and making them lunch in order to repay favours done by friends who want to find ways to escape their aged mothers.
Indeed, among the ladies in question is Gianni’s mother (fictional but probably not too far from real) 93 year old mother (Valeria De Franciscis), a woman whose appearance, wig, make-up and demeanour suggests she believes herself to be closer to 23. The other ladies have clashes and moments of crabbiness but will also charm hearts along the way, leaving Gianni exhausted, but at the very end is richly rewarded.
This is not an uproarious or frantic comedy, but a relatively short, gently amusing, beautifully shot (more of the vogueish shaky hand-held camera) and played by one and all sort of movie. You don’t get the impression of being bashed over the head to force the laughs, for which small mercy I am very grateful.
It also has the feel of being heavily improvised and is all the more true to life for that. This could easily be a fly-on-the-wall documentary with a few contrived moments thrown in along the way (not unlike a geriatric Italian TOWIE?)
Unquestionably the director/star/writer Gianni is a very charming man, and his ability to observe with minute detail and deliver a movie that unquestionably does leave you feeling good won him deserved praise, not to mention a clutch of awards. From Wikipedia:
The film won the Grand Prix Award and the Audience Award at the International Film Festival Bratislava, and also won the FIPRESCI Award. It was awarded the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a First Feature Film at the 65th Venice Film Festival in 2008. Additionally, it won awards at several other film festivals including the David Di Donatello Awards, the Satyajit Ray Award at the London Film Festival, and the Golden Snail award at the Academy of Food and Film in Bologna.
Ah yes, the food and drink. It doesn’t feature massively but being an Italian movie you couldn’t exclude the hunt for ingredients and the beautifully observed preparation and cooking. One suspects the real life Gianni also enjoys cooking and does it magnificently. He seems very much at home in the kitchen surroundings!
This won’t change your life but it will make you smile and leave you feeling just a tad better about the world. More than that we cannot ask of any movie.