INVITATION from Thame Cinema 4 All – Saturday, September 24 – Mid August Lunch; Italy 2008, 75 minutes, U certificate; Directed by Gianni Di Gregorio, Starring Alfonso Santagata, Gianni di Gregorio, Grazia Cesarini Sforza, Maria Cali, Maria Calli, Marina Cacciotti, Valeria de Franciscis.
Di Gregorio?s second feature as writer/director, Salt of the Earth, is currently on general release so this is an opportunity to relish his first film (which couldn?t be further from his acclaimed screenplay for modern day Cosa-Nostra drama Gomorrah). Chosen to complement Thame?s Food Festival, Mid August Lunch chronicles a weekend in the life of Gianni, a slightly down on his luck, slightly shambolic bachelor of late middle age, who lives with his formidable nonagenarian mother Valeria.
It is a scorching holiday weekend in Rome?s Trastevere district, a weekend on which most Romans head off to the coast. The apartment Caretaker, Luigi, is responsible for an elderly mother and, in lieu of unpaid utility bills, he persuades Gianni to take in an extra old lady for the weekend. A consultation with his doctor, who has to leave Mamma unattended while on a night shift, leaves Gianni with yet another aged guest. What ensues is a quietly meandering, often very funny, frequently poignant chronicle of a couple of days of cooking and eating, as the hapless Gianni struggles to contain his wayward, mischievous, stubborn, occasionally vicious, always exacting guests. This task he accomplishes with good humour and without resentment, helped by quantities of Chablis and a crafty cigarette here and there.
The film celebrates the quiet daily rituals of food preparation with cooking serving as a motif through out, in which the women reflect on their lives and their marriages, express their individual identities, and ultimately let their hair down. It is staggeringly rare to find a film that pays due attention to older people as individuals and given our own culture?s frankly shameful approach to the challenges of our ageing generation, the respect and sensitivity of Mid August Lunch is all the more striking. It treats its subjects with the dignity they deserve, heightened by a naturalism that makes it feel almost like a documentary at times ? in fact, the women are all untrained actors; one is the director?s aunt, another a friend, two others scouted in a care home. And its playfulness reflects each woman?s fierce reluctance to acquiesce to graceful ageing. Delicious.
Other films forthcoming are:
October 1st: Submarine (very funny, delightful coming of age indie comedy set in damp South Wales)
October 22nd: Senna (I know, I know, but trust us – it’s not a formula one film, just as Looking for Eric was not a football film…by all accounts a gripping edge of your seat documentary)
November 5th: Potiche (two of French cinema’s most iconic stars – Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve – in high camp pseudo 70’s farce with great charm and a sharp feminist edge).