In the same year when Woody Allen filmed a subplot about an insignificant Italian who was blasted from nowhere to hero of a reality show (To Rome with Love), Matteo Garrone (well known from the prize-winning Gomorrah, 2008) made a film about an insignificant Italian who wrongly believes the same thing happened to him. After the tough Mafia film Gomorrah, Garrone surprises us with a comedy of manners that pokes fun at the Italian obsession with television fame.
Luciano does an audition for Grande Fratello (the Italian Big Brother) and then, all over the place, he sees ‘scouts’ for the programme who come to observe him in his everyday life. With Italian passion and machismo, Luciano challenges his wife’s reality checks, while the story displays parallels with Christianity – from always being seen or wanting to be, to the opportunism of good deeds intended to gain access to a better world. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes.
Film details
- Countries of production
- France, Italy
- Year
- 2012
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2013
- Length
- 115'
- Medium/Format
- DCP
