It so happened that I first watched the remake a few years ago, although I rarely watch them, I liked it, and only then I got my hands on the original and I watched "They're All Right" by Giuseppe Tornatore, 1990. A widowed elderly man lives alone in Sicily and has been waiting unsuccessfully for his five children for several years. Once again, without waiting, he goes to visit them himself, thinking that he will surprise them with this, and also hoping to gather them all together at one table. Surprises, however, are more likely to await him and unpleasant, although all the lies are not revealed immediately, the children continued to lie, not wanting to offend their father by not justifying his hopes, he thought that they were all happy and achieved much. Everyone gathers together, except for one son, who is missing, only at the hospital bed, which after all the troubles he fell into. Finally, it comes to him that one should not expect too much from children. He returns alone to Sicily. Starring Marcello Mastroianni, who is good everywhere. The film has a good soundtrack as the music was written by Ennio Morricone.
And parents believe that the past was only yesterday.
The film is about all of us who have children and who plan to have them.
That while they're small, we don't notice and appreciate time with them; we miss everything because it seems like it's going on too long -- snot, tears, stupid questions -- and we've got all the business, the problems, and the kids don't understand all of that, and they'd be big. And from time to time we think - what will they be - adults?
And when they become these adults - big, complex - strangers - we begin to understand how much we missed in communicating with them, how much important we did not have time, and simply - how in everyday life there are not enough of our babies, sunshine, sometimes screaming, sometimes surprised by nonsense, sometimes pulling gray hair. And now, in the course of the film, the hero comes to the understanding that these favorite masyakov are no longer in this world - nowhere else. And he keeps remembering their little ones and trying to talk to them. Trying in vain. The children disappeared, there were big bearded men and strange women with a difficult fate.
Strongly and conceptually it is shown in the dream of the hero, when children are carried away from a clear beach some shaggy flying mop.
In short, as Mastroiani says, when they're little, we think about what they're going to be like as adults, and when they get older, we think about how small they were. And a terrible hopeless longing for the past and for their still stupid little ones left with you somewhere out there, in their own bad youth. And nothing can be returned. That's the movie. And this is a truly insoluble problem, not only of the modern world, but simply human, relevant at all times.
Played the master great, he had the whole movie, the rest on three.
“Everything is OK” is the third painting by Giuseppe Tornatore, which is difficult to enter at first, but when you penetrate it, you discover a lot. First of all, there is the wonderful associative dramaturgy of Tonino Guerra, who was one of the authors of the script here, his addiction to nonlinear, ambiguous symbolic images. The poetic tuning fork of the tape becomes a theme of childhood, in which a traveling old man occasionally immerses himself, remembering his children when they were small. This is absolutely amazing footage, when a conversation with an adult person is suddenly interrupted by a conversation with a child, with what he was as a child.
The lyrical poetics of late Guerra, best manifested in Tarkovsky’s Nostalgia and the films of Angelopoulos of the 80s and 90s, is a tragicomedy of lost time, a dying large culture that no one needs in the age of television and advertising. Guerra can see poetry in the most mundane things, unusual for the usual look - such are the dreams of the hero, his image with glasses with farsighted lenses that make his eyes large as a child. This picture is a hymn to age-related optimism. Which can only be with a deeply cheerful man who, like King Lear, travels to meet his children.
Of course, not everything is in order in this world, children lie, wanting to ease the existential burden of their elderly father, many comic details overshadow the aching sadness of this striking, viscous, slow, melancholic narrative, but there is no mortal longing and inhuman sadness of the films of the late Angelopoulos, but there is the charm of life and the joy of everyday encounter with it.
This picture is in many ways a benefit to Marcello Mastroianni, his cinematic existence for more than thirty years, the deepest humanity of the cinema images he creates, it is, of course, a tribute to Fellini, his Rablesian immoral cheerfulness, shocking bourgeois decency. However, there is no place here for Fellini's Renaissance comedy of talent during his heyday ("Sweet Life," "8 1/2," "Amarcord"), but there is the sad irony of his later paintings such as "Ginger and Fred" or "The Voice of the Moon." Indeed, time is irrevocably running out, and even such a desperate cinephile as Tornatore, who turned many of his works into imitations of Fellini, was unable to develop an integral, independent of the cinema world of Italian masters of artistic vision, becoming the creator of a completely Cinephile universe.
However, working with Guerra became for him an amazingly life-giving period in the biography, his talent revived, played with new colors, touching in an amazing poetic vision of the late Guerra, who ceased to be just a screenwriter, turning into a full-fledged cinematic artist. It is only regrettable that he never made his feature film as a director (not counting the documentary about friendship with Tarkovsky “Travel Time”), because the image of the black balloon from “Everything is OK”, abducting children, that is, the future, expressing the aggression of new television times, has so much to say to the viewer. It is a pity that Guerra did not fill his full-length, debut and not filmed work with such charming symbols. Anyway, bravo, Tonino! Thank you for everything!
One of the best Italian directors of our time, Giuseppe Tornatore reworked the script of Massimo De Rita, Tonino Guerra, to tell us the story of 70-year-old Matteo Scuro (the brilliant role of Marcello Mastroiani). Matteo is the father of five children who have long since left their father’s home in Sicily and are building their lives in different cities of Italy. The head of the family goes on a long journey, wanting to visit the children and make sure that they are all right. He lives by memories - hence the intrigue of history: what will happen when the past meets the present?
On the way, Matteo meets different people, gets into different situations. He wants to show off his children, and therefore he constantly turns to random fellow travelers with a request to ask him: “Where do you eat?” His children are talented, extraordinary personalities named after the heroes of famous Italian operas. But were they able to live independently in adulthood? What have they become? What are they dreaming about today? But who would have thought that these innocent questions can scare the whole family.
In the film, as in any work Tornatore - a whole scatter of beautiful plans and very accurate episodes. What is the scene in which Matteo, as an alternative to endless watching TV programs, offers a one-year-old kid to be put on a working washing machine? The effect is the same!
But in place and the main drawback of Tornatore is the protracted history. The viewer has already understood and realized everything, and the narrator, without noticing this, enters the next circle.
Mastroiani plays with big diopter glasses. His eyes seem unnaturally large. This is symbolic, because his hero has to consider what the father does not want to show his adult children.
After 20 years in Hollywood shot his version of the film with Robert De Niro in the title role. The painting didn't pay off. And critics wrote that the Americans “comfortably settled down in shoes worn by Marcello Mastroianni.”
7 out of 10
Giuseppe Tornatore? Hmm! Who is this? – so can ask fans of the work of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Michael Bay, if they ask about the knowledge of the Italian director and screenwriter. Nevertheless, not so well-known in wide circles, the filmmaker with his two films is in the Top 250 of the KP list - this is "The New Cinema Paradiso"" (180th place) and "The Legend of the Pianist (108th). In addition, those familiar with the works of Giuseppe Tornatore can always expect from his new films a good, if not a beautiful movie. For example, his latest film, Best Offer, has a very high rating and more and more people have watched it. And it's all deserved. Not flashy on the pages of the press, Tornatore, as a real creator-cinematographer, is in the shadows over and over again creating masterpieces of real, I would say, directing films, not production ones.
But now we are talking about the third in a row of work Tornator – the drama “They are fine”. If the first film of this wonderful Italian director (as much as Tornatore deserves epithets, so much will get!) “Camorrist” did not become very popular, then the subsequent and above mentioned tape “The New Cinema “Paradiso”" has even captured the cherished “Oscar” in the category “Best Foreign Language Film”. Tornatore already had the opportunity to work with outstanding actors of his era, but in the film “They’re doing well” his agreement to take part in the filming gave then 66-year-old Marcello Mastroianni, a man whose legend is beyond doubt. Idol, idol, sex symbol of his generation in those days when only the appearance of his name on the posters of cinemas caused a huge stir. And, despite his venerable age, Mastroianni creates an outstanding image of a loving father who went out of boredom to visit his children, who, as it turns out, were not waiting for him at all.
Based on this film, then in Hollywood was filmed a remake of “All the way” directed by Kirk Jones with Robert De Niro in the title role and with a whole scatter of Hollywood stars of the first magnitude. “They’re doing OK” is a tragic story, despite its more or less bright atmosphere. It would seem that it could be nicer if an elderly father decides to make an unexpected visit to his children, who are scattered throughout the Appeninian Peninsula. With irrepressible excitement and pride, the hero Mastroianni tells random fellow travelers about his offspring, without hiding praising them, which also suggests that he, as a father, was a wonderful parent. He remembers everything his children tell him about his life and career. Father believes them without the slightest doubt. However, when he comes to them, it gradually becomes clear that the children, wanting not to disappoint their parent, in many ways lied to him. Probably, every viewer of this touching, sad and very philosophical story will find what he does not like, and where to understand the favorite children of the hero Mastroianni.
However, I personally liked the storyline associated with the daughter of the protagonist Tosca, played by the famous Italian actress Valeria Cavalli. Firstly, she is a very beautiful woman, and secondly, her father does not know how to perceive her lies correctly: is it a lie for the benefit of himself and others or is it a shame from which Tosca tried to hide herself by lying? Analysis of her behavior is an opportunity to understand people who are beyond their desires in a vicious circle. Judge her or try to support her? Personally, I have found a position for myself, but it would be very interesting what it is for you if you suddenly become interested in this picture. So, there's only one storyline in a few sentences, and there's several, isn't that interesting? And another point that I would like to draw your attention to: the hero Mastroianni tried to rob a young villain. Do you know what kind of feelings you feel at this time? Nope? Then exactly you need to look at this picture to learn how you can feel completely different emotions, which in fact will be absolutely sincere.
An elegantly shot film that may well touch you for a living, especially thanks to the magnificent play of the great Italian master Marcello Mastroianni. If it was shot with the participation of Robert De Niro, then it already means something. Touching, sad and human film to great music.
9 out of 10
Among the creators of this film are Ennio Morricone and Silvio Berlusconi, who have become legendary each in their path.
An old, Sicilian widower Matteo (Mastroiani) goes on a trip to Italy to personally visit his children: three sons and two daughters. Matteo has no soul in them, and is in full confidence that his offspring have become prominent and significant members of society, and that they are doing well. But soon he will have to make sure that everything is not as rosy as he thought.
Tornatore made a very good and really serious film, raising the eternal questions of the relationship between fathers and children. History is as old as the world: Matteo saw only the best in his children, raised them with a view to great achievements, and did not want to accept failures and mistakes. The children repaid him with distrust and secrecy in deeds and deeds that could upset such a caring father. And the most poignant and sad thing about this story is not that they lied to Matteo, they say that everything is fine, but that he found out about it by pure chance. He could have remained in “happy” ignorance. And that to the question "Why?" he received such an unbearably whiplashy and truthful answer: "You yourself wanted to see us only like this."
Tornatore’s film “Everything is Fine” in its stylistic manner is much closer to “Malena” than, for example, to “Mere Formality” or “Stranger”. I say this so that those of you who are interested in my review will be prepared for some Italian-style confusion: loud and expressive dialogues, noisy mise-en-scene scenes and light elitism of applied visual solutions. However, the music of Morricone, as always, is beautiful, and the 65-year-old Marcello Mastroiani, who played the main role, shows the wonders of acting and makes the viewer with interest and eagerly follow the emotional experiences of his hero.
I recommend this film to those who are close to European, and in particular Italian cinema, as well as to those for whom the names Tornatore, Mastroiani and Morricone are not an empty sound. This is an interesting and deep picture.
An open and kind father of five children. In old age, he decides to visit all his “children”, who have long become adults, for the first time. They have their own lives, with their worries and disappointments. They don’t want to share that with their father. So you don't have to worry about it. It seems like they're caring. But this lie is not for the good of their relationship, but, on the contrary, increasingly alienates and disappoints everyone.
The main character of the film Matteo Scuro, shocks with a genuine and endless love for their children. Open and emotional, he tells all his fellow travelers only the good things about his family. There is no other in his heart.
You have a large family.
- We have wives, husbands, grandchildren and so on. A whole army. Part of Italy!! And that's not why I'm telling you that they're my family. Because they're all very nice people! To be honest with you.
Throughout the trip, as vivid news, there were memories of past years. He, his wife and five kids running around on the beach. This is still being done.
When they are small, you think of them as big. When they are big, you imagine them small.
That's exactly what it was.
He dreamed of these meetings. Dreamed, breathed and lived it!! But what were they hiding from him? Why?!
They concealed the truth about not very decent work, about the failed family life and in general about the loss of loved ones. If he had said it before, he would have understood, forgiven, he is the closest person. But when it all opens up instantly, like a big black spot that engulfs everything and everyone. Then the thought of such deception becomes infinitely unbearable.
It was these emotions and this truth, in my opinion, that Giuseppe Tornatore wanted to reflect, interspersing in the film shots that separate from the main canvas of the narrative. Footage from the beach, realized in good memories and terrible dreams. I also liked the pauses in the film. Stopping time and feeling that there is nothing in this world is more important than you and the person you are talking to at this moment.
Appreciate your loved ones! No one will understand or accept you as you are. Love!