From Cannes: "Mia madre" ("My Mother") Touching and Virtuosic

Italian director Nanni Moretti is a regular at Cannes, and in 2001, he won the Palme d’Or with “La Chambre du fils.” This year, he returns with the semi-autobiographical “Mia madre” (English “My Mother”), a piece so masterful in its style and so intimate in its emotion that it may earn a second Palme d’Or in Moretti’s career.

“Mia madre” focuses on a veteran female director named Margherita (Margherita Buy) and is split quite distinctively into three parts. The first follows the development of Margherita’s new film, which tells the story of factory workers protesting against a layoff ordered by the company’s new owner. The second part is centered on the troubled shooting of the film, in which the leading actor Barry Huggins (John Turturro) is not only an alcoholic but also never remembers his lines. The third part, and the core of the movie, shows the worsening health situation of Margherita’s mother, who may die at any time. All these are threaded together by the brilliant performance of Buy, whose interpretation of Margherita is both relatable and reserved.

Margherita’s psychological development under the stress from both her professional and personal life is the heart of the story, and the director presents it using a mixture of her real life events and surreal dream sequences. The first is exemplified by a scene where bad news about her mother’s health arrives to the set when she is shooting her film. Overwhelmed and in deep pain, she tells the crew in a trembling but determined voice that they will continue shooting. However, as soon as the shooting starts, she gives in to pressure and runs away. This delicate and empathetic scene is matched by a dream sequence earlier in the film, where Margherita walks past a line in front of a cinema showing “Wings of Desire,” and people she knows in the queue (including her mother) approach and ask her why she cannot make a film people are interested in or when her new film will be finished. Great scenes like these not only build the character, but also tint the whole film with a nostalgic, melancholic atmosphere.

With a well-written screenplay and a nuanced performance, “Mia madre” is clearly a beautiful film with a lasting charm. Once again, it proves Moretti’s status as the greatest living representative of Italian cinema.