Last night, on the occasion of the award ceremony of the silver tapes, “the time it takes” by Francesca Comencini won 5 prizes: best film, best actress Roman protagonist Maggiora Vergano, best leading actor Fabrizio Gifuni. Below we propose our review, published on the occasion of the presentation in Venice 81.

Very few directors played such an important role in our cinema such as Luigi Comencini, to whom we owe iconic titles such as Bread love and fantasy, Bube’s girlfriend, La Bella di Roma and masterpieces of the small screen like Heart And The adventures of Pinocchio. His daughter Francesca Comencini, one of the Italian directing of the greatest weight of her generation, with this The time it takes He guides us within his past, his relationship with his father, cinema, on a journey into their intimate, unique and far from predictable life.

The time it takes – the plot

The time it takes It makes Francesca Comencini’s childhood the center of the first narrative segment of the film, with a point of view that is exactly half between that of the father Luigi (Fabrizio Gifuni) and Francesca, a naive, shy and solitary girl (played by a very good Anna Mangiocavallo). We are in the early 70s, Luigi Comencini is about to begin the filming of that The adventures of Pinocchio Which will become a pillar of our television narrative, probably the largest transposition of Collodi’s masterpiece. Francesca sees him defending her at school, bringing her into her world to which thematic essence acquires a great weight in this biographical film but still far from the norm of the genre. Let’s take a jump and here we find ourselves in 1978. Terrorism continues to shake Italy, Francesca (Roman Maggiora Vergano) has grown, however, has become a complicated, fragile girl, who does not know what her way is, who no longer has that serene relationship with her father.

He sees her lost behind wrong companies, a bad consideration of self and finally also drug addiction. The time it takes All this shows us with a plus but fast step, also merciless, because one of the most interesting things here is like Francesca Comencini is incredibly self -criticism, as well as knowing how to offer us his vision over those years, going beyond the most tender moments of childhood. He talks to us of his youth stubbornness in not wanting to understand the reality of things, he accuses himself of having been presumptuous, arrogant, superficial, as it is indeed typical in those years. And then then that relationship father daughter also becomes a gaming the passing of witness between two different generations, not only from a human, historical or social, but also cinematographic point of view. Finally, Francesca Comencini then in the cinema that counts really got there and here he tries to make us understand how much that father, his teachings, not only clearly technical, but also moral, spiritual, on how to make a film something accessible to everyone and not a mere exercise of self -confidence.

A father-daughter relationship that becomes generational meeting

The time it takes It is an honest, sincere film, at obviously difficulty because it deals with issues from nothing, such as the aforementioned drug addiction, depression, gives us an image of adolescence distant from the clichés with which our cinema has often described it almost a sort of oasis of serenity. Interesting also remains the way in which the years of lead are approaching here, the era of the contestation, with which Comencini proves to be very critical towards his generation, that sympathizes for the red brigades and the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, that choosing a blind, angry violence without a real knowledge of the world. The generational clash is not simply a clash of manners, it is not even a clash between the sexes, but gradually becomes a dialogue with the concept of fear at the base, failure. Fabrizio Gifuni is the author of one of his greatest interpretations in the role of Luigi Comencini, a certain director, but here very tender father, however, also capable of being Adamantino when he serves, when he understands that Francesca is ending up in a Gorgo.

He does not give up even when Parkinson’s disease begins to chase him, and his daughter dismay sees that his body begins to no longer be what it once was. The chemistry between him and the shame, which crushes us with those desperate and unaware eyes, is remarkable. Said that, The time it takes It is a coherent film but perhaps something is missing, on all the ability from half onwards to develop a story that is more of images only, it is as if there was a missing part, a segment that has not been offered to us. However, in his ability to be incredibly intimate, in the disenchantment with which Francesca Comencini speaks of herself, of that difficult past, net of a slightly melense ending, there is a lot of vitality. The time it takes It may also seem in certain moments a passing film, in the way he looks to the inheritance of the great masters of our cinema, but it is not said that this is then a defect. The final judgment cannot be that of course it is positive, as it knows how to take charge of a different conception of the biopic and above all of the father and daughter relationship, to which our cinema to date has never looked at particular attention.

VOTE: 6.5