An elegantly acted art house film about a middle class couple's struggle to hold their lives together, Days and Cloud is both sensitive and engrossing.
An elegantly acted art house film about a middle class couple's struggle to hold their lives together, Days and Cloud is both sensitive and engrossing.
In Bread and Tulips, director Silvio Soldini detailed the journey of a discontented housewife who threw caution to the wind to find true happiness in Venice; in Days and Clouds, the same filmmaker explores the opposite side of the coin by telling the tale of a middle-class homemaker from Genoa who suddenly finds her life turned upside down. Elsa (Margherita Buy) is the picture of middle-class contentment: she's happily married, well adjusted, and spends most of her spare time developing her
skills as an amateur historian specializing in restoration. Recently, Elsa even decided to return to school in order to earn her degree. One day, after gently scraping the ceiling of a local chapel to reveal hidden angels that hadn't seen the light of day in decades, Elsa is informed by her husband, Michele (Antonio Albanese), that the couple will have to give up their posh apartment. Michele was formerly a partner in a successful shipping firm, but now that his partner has forced him out of the business, the happy husband and wife won't be able to maintain their current lifestyle. In the aftermath of that disheartening revelation, Elsa and Michele both try to find work while dealing with the predicament in directly opposing ways. Later, after moving into a much smaller apartment, the cracks in Elsa and Michele's now fragile marriage gradually begin to widen. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Days and Clouds serves as a primer in coping with depression, financial and/or personal. But it is stirring, serious and, ultimately, mercifully optimistic cinema.
This is a portrait of nerve-racking economic times, and it cuts close to the bone in detailing how a marriage suffers when its financial underpinnings are suddenly knocked away.
A brave film simply for daring to portray a nightmare lurking in the minds of middle-aged workers, people who might fear a film that addresses their insecurities this bluntly.
Plausibly-scripted and well-acted, this telling tale proves to be decidedly timely, given the world economy's currently teetering on the brink of a widespread recession.
Elsa and Michele's story is such a deft study of what can make a relationship go to pieces that it's a satisfying watch in spite of all the bitterness.
a thought-provoking and powerful story that will appeal to mature audiences and those who appreciate fine filmmaking...that is worth laying out 12 bucks to see it at the theater.
Soldini gets at all the nuances of a marriage of many years in crisis, and, without a typical 'happy' ending where all worries are neatly resolved, wraps with hopeful poetry...
What seemed at first a provocative study of a family tragedy becomes a two-hour immersion into minutiea until you start thinking that the exits are where the action is.
This movie goes well with our current economic downfall. It serves as a reminder that losing a job can happen to anybody, and life can change over night. In the end we have to face the reality, pick up the pieces, and move on with our life. However, It's not nearly as engaging or dramatic as other Italian
flicks....it's very quiet, and not much happens.
a relevant film for these turbulent economic times. a story of loss, identity crises, reinvention, and core values. the final shots of the uncovered fresco leave the viewer hopeful.
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