Domenica d’Agosto Movie

Domenica d’Agosto Movie.

Favourite film territory here and this is quite a discovery. On a summer weekend the whole of Rome is piling down to the beach at Ostia. About eight separate threads follow various groups and individuals having their day out: a working class family including a couple of nubile young ladies; a bunch of cyclists plus a kid brother on the crossbar; a jaded man who can’t bear to be apart from his young daughter at the adjacent summer camp; an aristocratic gathering at the private beach club on the other side. The film, like the beach, is bursting with life. Situations are developed and resolved with breath-taking wit and economy as relationships are formed, ended, or otherwise worked out. The long day had by all is suffused with the overarching irony that their supposedly leisurely day out is actually quite exhausting. Everyone shares the limelight in equal measure; Mastroianni appears in his first significant role, but standing out is Anna Baldini – whose one and only film appearance this is and her nascent relationship with Franco Interlenghi is perhaps the film’s centrepiece: truly great the wistful music as the couple get lost and start their long isolated walk back through the maquis – the director being fully aware of what the characters are not: that through all the chaos, this is the time of everyone’s life. I don’t mind admitting that it had me welling up many times simply because it was so satisfying, or perhaps because it managed to remind me that I’m still human.

 

 

It’s August in Rome and it seems like the whole town has a single mission – go to the beach! You can watch this charming, time-capsule of a movie below (76 minutes). In this light comedy, categorized under “Pink Neorealism,” precursor to later Italian comedy genre (considering that just a year earlier in 1948 Vittorio di Sica released the emblematic Neorealistic film Bicycle Thieves featuring real existential needs!) – director Luciano Emmer provides a much lighter view of post-WWII Italian society.

The plot leverages what I call “channel-zapping” storytelling technique, where four distinct stories are switched back and forth: the cyclists, the big common family, the rich folks and the humble couple. Four stories for which apparently only two are connected, vividly paint a lively, and quiet authentic picture of summer pastime habits of Romans in the late 1940’s.