La Prima Cosa Bella (Paolo Virzì)

[pro-bassoonist]

Paolo Virzì's La Prima Cosa Bella a.k.a The First Beautiful Thing (2010) has received a preliminary release date: November 10th. (Mr. Virzi also directed the wonderful Caterina in the Big City).

Frank J. Avella:

Italian helmer Paolo Virzi believes cinema is “something you make for others” and not necessarily “something you make to exorcise your own demons.” Yet it’s hard to fathom that The First Beautiful Thing isn’t autobiographical in some ways since it feels so personal.

Virzi’s film blends great humor with resonant pathos as he (and his two co-screenwriters Francesco Bruni & Francesco Piccolo) tells the story of one family via flashbacks.

The opening scene takes place in the summer of 1971 at a beauty contest being held in Livorno, Italy. Unbeknownst to her, the gorgeous Anna (Micaela Ramazzotti) is about to be chosen as the best looking mom in the audience, which immediately causes friction between she and her possessive and jealous husband Mario (Sergio Albelli, playing typical Italian male very well). This oddball moment will have ripples that will affect Anna, Mario and their two children, the petulant Bruno and needy Valeria, for the rest of their lives.

The pic sprints forward to the present and finds Bruno (Valerio Mastandrea) estranged from his dying mother Anna (now played by the great Stefania Sandrelli). Bruno has developed into a misanthropic misfit who constantly seeks escape (usually through drugs) from the humdrum life he has created for himself. Valeria (Claudia Pandolfi) has her own issues stuck in a marriage to a buffoon.

The film bounces back and forth in time arranging the narrative pieces together until the full bittersweet puzzle emerges and we see how the sibs’ lives got grim. Virzi explores the male-ego dominated view of female sexuality and, how, even the inference of an indiscretion on the wife’s part is seen as the worst betrayal while a husband’s infidelity is accepted and often celebrated.

At equal times poignant and infuriating, The First Beautiful Thing soars when either Anna is onscreen.

Ramazzotti captures Anna’s youthful exuberance and tentative sensuality perfectly while Sandrelli shows us a woman struggling to hold onto those qualities as death approaches.

Virzi finds a nice balance between the ridiculous and the grave and provides a few catharses along the journey for a few of the characters as well as the audience.

Pro-B