L' Amico di Famiglia (The Family Friend) (Friend of the Family) (2006)
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82% of critics liked it
(11 reviews) -
73% of users liked it
(1,034 ratings)
In writer/director Paolo Sorrentino's second feature, The Family Friend (L'Amico di Famiglia), Giacomo Rizzo stars as Geremia de Geremei, a sixtysomething tailor who lives with his mother in a disgusting and decrepit flat. Though wealthy from the money that he has culled via loan-sharking,… More In writer/director Paolo Sorrentino's second feature, The Family Friend (L'Amico di Famiglia), Giacomo Rizzo stars as Geremia de Geremei, a sixtysomething tailor who lives with his mother in a disgusting and decrepit flat. Though wealthy from the money that he has culled via loan-sharking, Geremia is a thoroughly miserable wretch, driven into the throes of destruction by his own incredible selfishness and his obsessive infatuation with a beautiful local girl, Rosalba (Laura Chiatta), whom he meets when asked to assist with her wedding. Geremia agrees, but takes the bride off alone and pressures her into sex, little realizing that he's sowing the seeds of his own downfall. Meanwhile, a bidet supplier attempts to goad Geremia into giving him a massive loan -- an amount that Geremia could never possibly fork over. Throughout the film, Sorrentino packs in numerous surrealistic touches, from the sight of a nun buried up to her neck in sand (accompanied by an aural assault on the soundtrack) to a grotesque glimpse of Rizzo with a potato poultice around his head to the jarring sight of Geremia's village, built by Mussolini on an Italian swampland. In the process, Sorrentino manages to create his own distinct world and thoroughly unforgettable characters. He also pulls off an incredibly difficult feat, by enabling the audience to care about a markedly unpleasant central figure. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Directed By
- Paolo Sorrentino
- Written By
- Paolo Sorrentino
- Genres
- Art House & International, Drama
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- May 25, 2006 Wide
- Studio
- Artificial Eye
Critic Reviews
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Geoff Andrew, Time Out
All the surface style is properly wrapped around ideas of substance.
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Ray Bennett, Hollywood Reporter
The film fails singularly to provide any character worth caring about.
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Jay Weissberg, Variety
Paolo Sorrentino's third feature The Family Friend expands the maverick helmer's singular vision, though this time he's crafted a more complex world to illustrate his philosophy: everyone steals, and everyone is unhappy.
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Anton Bitel, Eye for Film
Sorrentino is often accused of being all style and no substance, but on the contrary his films are carefully built around the contrast between surface appearances and hidden depths.
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Sam Jordison, Film4
For many directors this would be counted as a considerable success, but from the director of The Consequences Of Love, it seems like a disappointment. It's smart, it looks great and there are fantastic characters, but the motive power just isn't there.
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Cast
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Giacomo Rizzo
as Geremia de Geremei
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Fabrizio Bentivoglio
as Gino
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Laura Chiatti
as Rosalba
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Gigi Angelillo
as Saverio
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Clara Bindi
as Geremia's Mother
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Barbara Valmorin
as Bingo Grandma
- Marco Giallini
- Alina Nedela
- Roberta Fiorentini
- Elias Schilton
- Lorenzo Gioielli
- Giorgio Colangeli
- Valentina Lodovini
- Geremia Longobardo
- Fabio Grossi
- Barbara Scoppa
- Luisa De Santis
- Lorenzo Sorrentino
- Lucia Ragni
- Luigi Angelillo
