Three Floors (Tre piani)***half
director Nanni Moretti 2021
Bitter sweet movie of a mellow adult film, we can never do everything perfectly, and even if we tried, it might turn out suffocating for the one who is not, has not been trained to perform to an older standard.
Three floors
The judge and his loving perfect wife - and the son who is not performing as expected. And the final resolution, that life goes on and people could change after all. The son re-conciliates w the mother. Just from the change of style, wearing a flowery spring like dress, and not the dark intellectual robes of middle aged ladies. The scene at the dress shop is v gd, we see the mother trying out different outfits, for a new life. From the son, nothing is ever gd enough for the parents, they maintained a standard that is impossible for him. So he finally goes to the country side and becomes a bee keeper. Everybody has problems, hurdles sometimes v hard to overcome. The wife talking to an answering machine for her late husband is wonderful, v smart, how else could we know what she is thinking and her spiritual progression ?
Moretti plays the judge. His profession is the judge, so of course he has to have certain standards, right? No way out of that.
The single v Botticelli like pure beautiful wife and her often absent husband and 2 children, and slightly mentally off mother - might be hereditary - as she herself in spite of trying v hard, is slowly also moving into the path of her own mother, and its also hinted that the young daughter even at an early age is very sensitive to the feelings and situations of the adult world. Her pale milky skin and red hair, breast feeding scene is truly a madonna recreated. And the young daughter missing her mom for a long time, sees her dancing at a street musicians tango parade. Hinting that she might also have a capacity for fantasy of the mind. I noticed also that for a dancing sequence, the film used fleshy bodies of women, with large realistic hips, not the pro dancers but gd dancers w ordinary bodies. This is a detail that is v unusual for a dancing scene. But its v gd, I remembered it, it makes a mark in our minds. Real people doing romantic things down to earth.
The family with a v beautiful daughter coming of age, in love with the husband of a professional couple - who has a complicated mental block, he thinks their neighbour elderly baby sitter might have done something to their child, even though everyone from top to bottom have proven that there is no grounds for his suspicion. And many years later, out of the mouth of his own daughter, she also said that nothing happened like what the father was suspecting, carrying the poison inside him, this un found ground for doubt has been the source of his sorrowful fate. So much so that he slept w the grand daughter of the baby sitter - just so that he might get some confirmation of his suspicion which never happened. But the girl was in love w him, she tried to make him love her, including having sex w her. Human troubles, love desire, unrequited love. Time passed and finally she avowed her feelings to him and have peace of mind for the man and herself which is already a v gd thing. It is as good as it could get. I cannot imagine an Asian family able to do it, neither for the man nor for the young girl.
A very mature film, life is full of unsolvable problems that it might or might not get better but we have to deal with it. The three families live in a chic neighourhood, drive Mercedes, go to fancy dress shops, and have summer holidays here and there.
Their problems are not your everyday poor people making ends meet problems. Their problems cannot be solved with money.
80% of our human problems could be solved with money, the other 20% is very difficult, it takes something more, something else.
