Wedding Director (Il Regista di Matrimoni)

Critics Consensus

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Wedding Director (Il Regista di Matrimoni) Photos

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Movie Info

Franco Elica, a dissolute movie director who slides into despair after being asked - to his horror - to make yet another version of Alessandro Manzoni's The Betrothed. Complicating matters is news that a looming sexual-harassment scandal is about to break. Hoping to avoid the scandal at all costs, Franco flees to Sicily where he hides out in a small village. There he meets a host of colorful characters: a man who makes his living shooting souvenir wedding films, a film director who is faking his own death to finally achieve the fame that has eluded him all his life, and the cultured nobleman Prince Ferdinando Gravina di Palagonia. The menacing Prince, a huge fan of Franco's movies, commissions the depraved filmmaker to shoot the wedding of his tempestuous daughter, Bona, with whom Elica quickly falls impulsively, idiotically, dangerously in love and whose wedding he becomes driven to sabotage at all costs.

Rating:

NR
Genre:

Comedy, Drama
Directed By:

Marco Bellocchio
In Theaters:

Jun 4, 2008 wide
On Disc/Streaming:

Nov 18, 2008
Runtime:

105 minutes
Studio:

New Yorker Films

Cast

Sergio Castellitto
as Franco Elica

Gianni Cavina
as Smamma

Maurizio Donadoni
as Micetti

Donatella Finocchiaro
as Bona di Gravina

Sami Frey
as Principe di Gravina

Bruno Cariello
as Enzo Baiocco

Critic Reviews for Wedding Director (Il Regista di Matrimoni)

All Critics (9) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (4)

In The Wedding Director, Sergio Castellitto, the film's star, is the perfect vessel for the director Marco Bellocchio's playful, sorrowful sensibility.

Jun 4, 2008 | Full Review…

A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic
'Do you make art or chocolate commercials?' the prince taunts Franco. The strained art in The Wedding Director makes you hungry for the candy.

Jun 29, 2007 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
Top Critic
The humour's less hit than miss, and a little of Castellitto's melancholia goes a very long way. Disappointing.

Nov 29, 2006 | Full Review…

Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic
[The] overriding deceptions and flaws give ample cause for an early annulment with discerning viewers.

May 20, 2006

Duane Byrge
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic
Promises much more than it delivers.

May 20, 2006

Deborah Young
Variety
Top Critic
Unfortunately, The Wedding Director itself is a major comedown from Bellocchio's miraculous classic movies (Fist in His Pocket, The Eyes, the Mouth, etc.).

Oct 22, 2014 | Full Review…

Gerald Peary
Boston Phoenix
All in all, the film will hold its own and become a standout for the sake that it boldly tried and succeeded.

Jun 6, 2008 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Matthew Nestel
Boxoffice Magazine
The Wedding Director is truly complex; but that's also its delight.

Jun 4, 2008 | Full Review…

Armond White
New York Press
Marco Bellochio's The Wedding Director is a pleasant enough trifle -- just the thing for a dreamy summer afternoon.

May 27, 2008 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Andrew Schenker
Slant Magazine

View All Critic Reviews (9)

Audience Reviews for Wedding Director (Il Regista di Matrimoni)

Mar 05, 2010

Even if the incomprehensible last half-hour is a miss, this is a well-directed and sharp comedy with a great performance by Castellitto - and the scenes involving a film director faking his own death are the highlight.

Carlos M Super Reviewer