underground cinema

we all loved each other so much

2 januari 20:30 - 23:00

WE ALL LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH 1974
(C'eravamo tanto amati)

Directed by Ettore Scola
124 minutes
In Italian with English subtitles

This is often considered to be one of the greatest and most influential movies in Italian cinema. So why has it been so forgotten, so marginalized, so abandoned... almost impossible to see? In fact, outside its home country it hasn't been seen for ages. In any event we will do our best to correct this sinister state of affairs with a screening of this wonderful film by the razor-sharp Ettore Scola. This movie has everything... it's intelligent, multi-layered, hilarious, irreverent, inventive, and simply luscious to look at. This is what cinema is all about.... breaking down formulas and creating your own fluid vision. Even the cinematography is like a patchwork painting, shifting between black & white and color, sometimes bordering on a flowing surrealism. And even though Italy was going through tough and gloomy times, this flick has a sense of humor and life-embracing quality that is shattering.

Three men - Gianni, Nicola and Antonio - have become friends while they were fighting for liberation of their homeland against the Germans in WWII. They were all united against a common enemy. After the war, they are full of hope for a brighter future for Italy, and the film follows their transformation over the next 30 years of their lives. At different points each of them falls in love with a seductive beauty named Luciana (Stephania Sandrelli), which tests the friendship and the idealism they all once shared. This raises the question of what liberation means to each of them in the first place. For some it means socialist democracy, for another it means capitalism and making as much cash as possible. This delirious flick works on several layers - as both a personal drama, but also as a metaphor for the post-war history of Italy.

This might be the kind of film you fall in love with. So many have been profoundly affected by it, including the French actor Daniel Auteuil, who said this was the movie that changed his life. A dazzling script, scrumptious camerawork, and a nostalgic twist that might leave you in helpless rapture. With Nino Manfredi, Vittorio Gassman and Stefania Sandrelli (with cameos by Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni).