01/08/2023 - Sergio Castellitto plays a centenarian in Alessandro Bardani’s well written and well-acted dramedy which won an award at the Giffoni Film Festival and which marks Valerio Lundini’s cinema debut

Gustavo has never met his mother. An Italian law prevents children who are unrecognised at birth from discovering the identity of their own biological parents before the former reach one hundred years of age. Gustavo is now a hundred years old, and Giovanni – his “brother from another mother”, who was likewise abandoned at birth but is far younger – seeks the old man’s help in order to fight against Italy’s absurd “100-year-old law”. Gustavo and Giovanni are played by Sergio Castellitto and Valerio Lundini in Alessandro Bardani’s debut film Il più bel secolo della mia vita [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which won a round of applause at the 53rd Giffoni Film Festival, as well as the Best Film trophy in the Generator +18 line-up. It’s a well written and well-acted movie, seamlessly inciting tears and laughter and shedding light on legislation currently affecting 400,000 people who don’t have the right to find out who brought them into the world or to uncover crucial information about their own genetic make-up.

Based on the stage play of the same name by Alessandro Bardani and Luigi Di Capua - who also penned the screenplay alongside Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli - Il più bel secolo della mia vita is a road movie throwing together a one-hundred-year-old man who has walked away from his past and is trying to enjoy the time he has left, and a thirty-something who can’t move forwards without unearthing that very same past. Gustavo and Giovanni first meet in the hospice where the old man has been living for a number of years. A member of the Association for Adopted Children, Giovanni is there to take Gustavo to an important event where he will finally gain access to the file containing his mother’s identity, and where he can make the government aware of the need to change this brutal law. It’s more for the “shot of life” this journey promises than for the cause itself that Gustavo agrees to climb into Giovanni’s car: discovering his origins doesn’t really matter much to Gustavo anymore.

Giovanni, however, is desperately interested in this cause, almost to the point of obsession. In fact, the film hinges on the contrasts between the two men, especially the young man’s seriousness and the older man’s lighter approach; the latter reminisces about being a driver in Vallelunga when he used to go dancing in clubs and, even now, at his ripe old age, he insists on being in the driving seat, which creates moments of inevitable comedy. Made up to look thirty years older, Sergio Castellitto leans on his full range of expert acting skills to ensure the credibility of his character, even down to his tone of voice and movements. Meanwhile, as one of the most interesting comedians of his generation, Valerio Lundini simply needs to be himself in order to make this unlikely duo work in his first ever lead role. Benefitting from intense and wholly original dialogue, the film tackles an important theme without being rhetorical, and is further buoyed by brilliant supporting actors (notably including Carla Signoris in the shoes of Giovanni’s adoptive mother and Betti Pedrazzi playing the sister who takes care of Gustavo), Brunori Sas’ beautiful song composed specifically for this movie, and evocative archive images reminding us of how much the world can change in the space of a hundred years.

Il più bel secolo della mia vita is produced by Goon Films (with Gabriele Mainetti as artistic producer) and Lucky Red, together with RAI Cinema in collaboration with Prime Video. The film will be released in Italian cinemas on 7 September, distributed by Lucky Red.

(Translated from Italian)