40 - to rome with love

The weather being what it is, what better to do, than to rent a bunch of movies from the friendly neighborhood video rental (highly recommend if you are in Zurich, we have been customers for around 15 years and Lillian who runs Filmriss is just a wonderful nice person, with a huge film knowledge and a selection of movies that strays from main stream).

Today we watched To Rome with Love, by Woody Allen. We have seen a few of the late Allen moves in the past years (Midnight in Paris and Vicky Christina Barcelona come to mind), so I had a vague feeling of how this film might be.  I really enjoyed Midnight in Paris and Vicky Christian Barcelona, the light handed way of Allen telling simple (yet touching) stories. While “To Rome with Love” had some neat ideas (singing in the shower, being famous for being famous), most of the film lacked Allens magic touch. There were a few laughs (seeing Allen play again after so many years was good), but most of the short stories weren’t that interesting (or touching). Young naïve couple from the country side, coming to town, both making sexual experiences outside their marriage? Check. Old man, seeing his younger self making costly mistake by fucking with his girlfriends best friend? Check. Well off older US couple flying to Europe because her daughter fell in love with a native european? Check.

The one story that stood out for me as a comment on todays celebrity craze, was the one of Roberto Benigni, playing Leopold an unassuming and predictable clerk that suddenly gets his 15 minutes of fame on TV for being absolutely unremarkable, but “famous for being famous”. I see it as a comment on the shallow celebrity shows that we are treated with on TV. Benigni plays himself nicely, but ultimately his story falls short too of really touching the viewer.

Still, an enjoyable Allen movie.

Tomorrow: Argo