It's rare to find a film with such a complex argument that holds attention for two hours and avoids all the pitfalls of sentiment - and cynicism. I would class this one as must see.
After his Porte Aperte and Lamerica, two of the most impressive European films of the last decades I was looking forward to a new Gianni Amelio and I wasn't wrong.
Tenerezza /Tenderness is not a big statement like those. It's a careful account of the life of retired Neapolitan lawyer Amelio regular Renato Carpentieri, first found pulling out his drips and leaving hospital. His daughter Giovanna Mezzogiorno asks whether he was honest and a clerk tells her "It's hard to be a good lawyer and honest too."
We kick off with Mezzogiorno making an unappealing entrance ratting out the Arab in the glassed in court room dock she's translating for. Even her own child doesn't much like her. However after we've spent two hours with her father we understand her a whole lot better - one of the film's many surprises and a considerable achievement.
Any description will be a spoiler. The film's impact depends on its unpredictability. Greta Scacchi's character provides one real shock.
A couple more super stars of the current Italian cinema, Micaela Ramazzotti and Elio Germano figure and the 'scope camera-work is Luca Bigazzi again, here in top form. It's all a class act.
After his Porte Aperte and Lamerica, two of the most impressive European films of the last decades I was looking forward to a new Gianni Amelio and I wasn't wrong.
Tenerezza /Tenderness is not a big statement like those. It's a careful account of the life of retired Neapolitan lawyer Amelio regular Renato Carpentieri, first found pulling out his drips and leaving hospital. His daughter Giovanna Mezzogiorno asks whether he was honest and a clerk tells her "It's hard to be a good lawyer and honest too."
We kick off with Mezzogiorno making an unappealing entrance ratting out the Arab in the glassed in court room dock she's translating for. Even her own child doesn't much like her. However after we've spent two hours with her father we understand her a whole lot better - one of the film's many surprises and a considerable achievement.
Any description will be a spoiler. The film's impact depends on its unpredictability. Greta Scacchi's character provides one real shock.
A couple more super stars of the current Italian cinema, Micaela Ramazzotti and Elio Germano figure and the 'scope camera-work is Luca Bigazzi again, here in top form. It's all a class act.