Part 1:
Matteo and Nicola's relationship was really interesting. Throughout the film, we see the dynamic between the two brothers evolve more as their personalities form. Matteo you can see early on is very angry all the time, he reacts to problems quickly and fiercely. He is always trying to do the right thing. When he saves Giorgia he is trying to do the right thing even though they don't get along. You can especially see how quickly Matteo reacts angrily when he interacts with Giorgia. They are always yelling at each other even though you can see he cares for her. Whereas Nicola treats Giorgia kindly and makes jokes. This shows that Nicole's personality is a lot more easygoing and relaxed. Because the two brother's personalities are so different they end up doing very different things with their lives. Matteo joined the army because he was looking for structure and a way to get his anger out. The army allowed him to be angry and have a safe outlet instead of just yelling randomly at people. However, Nicola decided to just travel and learn about different people's personalities, I think he was attracted to how people lived their lives away from structure. He is the polar opposite to Matteo, Nicola doesn't want to be controlled. You can especially see this dynamic when the school protests happen, Matteo thinks is ridiculous that people are protesting the school because the school gives people structure, but Nicola is protesting not because he truly believes in it but because it is something to do that promotes freedom. To me, it feels like Matteo really believes in the army and what they are doing and is trying to do the right thing. But Nicola is just doing whatever he feels is right at the moment. Ultimately though they are both trying to do what is right for society but have different perspectives on how to accomplish that.
I also thought it was interesting that the one time we see Nicola get angry is when his brother directly betrays him and just leaves him at the train station. I think it shows how deeply family is rooted in their culture. Only his brother betraying him can make him angry. Nicola didn't get angry when Italy flooded, when Giorgia was taken, or when the protests were happening. But he got angry with his brother, which shows he truly loves him and doesn't want to be apart. I also thought it was interesting that Nicola jumps from place to place on the flip of a dime where Matteo stays in the army the whole movie. I think this just solidifies that Matteo needs structure and discipline and it takes him a long time to make decisions. Whereas Nicola doesn't need time, if something looks cool he goes there and figures it out. Little things also show how different their personalities are, like Matteo has really short hair and Nicola has very long hair. Since they used to look similar at the beginning of the movie, I think having their hair change over time so they look different was a cool way of showing how they were growing apart.
Part 2:
The most interesting interaction I noticed in this movie is the fact that Giorgia came back. Nicola says that people are split into two just like us. I think this demonstrates that Giorgia is split into two, one side is Matteo and one side is Nicola. Her Matteo side is the anger side, the inability to have freedom and always being forced to follow rules, and be tied up. She also isn't good at expressing her emotions and turns away from them. Just as Matteo turns away from his emotions and acts in anger. However, over the summer, we saw Giorgia be freer, laugh a little, listen to music, and respond to Nicola more easily. This shows her carefree side and a side of her that Nicola can relate to. I also think this concept of split into two relates directly to the brothers. Matteo, we see his one very angry side all the time. His side needs structure, orders, and rules. But as the movie progresses we also start to see his old self. He starts photographing again, reading people's soles, and bringing his books. This shows he is also split and trying to find a compromise between his two sides. Nicola, we have always seen the more carefree side. He goes on adventures, grows his hair out long, and does whatever job he can find. He also looks for freedom, in his psychiatric job he is trying to free psychiatric patients or he joins the student rally to get more freedom from teachers. So he has this main side of freedom and exploration and humanitarianism. However, a couple of times we see him get angry, especially involving the family. Like when he yells at Mateo for leaving, or his daughter for not wanting to go to fencing. So we also see this side of them that has anger and passion for people.
Another idea I thought was interesting in the movie was how his father is a helper. The father before he dies is always trying to help people and I think that is how he relates to his kids. He helps Nicola with the typewriter, and Gulia with painting and the piano. However, he never managed to help Matteo. This is probably why he feels as though he could never understand Matteo. This also might relate to the root of Matteo's anger. If his father and mother could never relate to him he may have never gotten the opportunity to open up and learn how to express his feelings. He then might have seen his siblings opening up and getting validation from his parents that he never received. This may have given him a good dose of resentment. Resentment paired with the inability to open up about feelings would condition someone to always be angry, so this could be one reason that Matteo always yells if one little thing goes wrong, he doesn't know how to express himself. We can also see this when the dad dies and Matteo can't face Nicola. I think this shows he can't turn around and face his problems, he always turns away from them.
Part 3:
The biggest theme I saw throughout the film was the split into two ideas. That everyone has two personalities or two big parts of themselves. I had talked about it with Matteo, Nicola, and Giorgia. But I also think Gulia demonstrates this idea very clearly. In the beginning of the film we see her with long blonde hair playing the piano Music is obviously a big part of her life. She then falls in love with Nicola which shows she is open to love and having a family. However, we also see her start to go down this path of thinking Italy is not right and needs to be changed. So we have the side of her that wants a family and the side of her that wants to change Italy no matter what it takes. We then see her cut her hair shorter before leaving Nicola and Sara, I think this physically shows she is starting to give in to her terrorist side. After she leaves we see her have short brown hair, this is a huge difference from the long blonde hair we first saw her have. I think this shows she fully gave in to her other side and left her family behind. However, as she goes to jail and gets out of jail we see her struggle with wanting to see Sara and play music again. Her hair also starts to get longer and move back towards that blonde shade. This is her struggling again with being a mother or terrorist. In the end, we see her play music again and agree to see her daughter, with blonde hair, showing she decided to fight her other side and be a mom. Yet she is still wearing sunglasses which also demonstrates she doesn't really know who she is anymore and is hiding from her past self.
Another idea I wanted to touch on was the idea of forgiveness in the movie. Nicola is the best at forgiving. He forgives Matteo every time he tries to push him out. He also forgives Guilia when she leaves her family to become a terrorist. He believes everyone deserves love and forgiveness. I also think that is why he went into his profession. All those people who deserved love were getting electrocuted instead, which he didn't think was fair. He was able to give love to them and save them. I also thought Matteo needed more love and forgiveness in his life. He would push people away and they would let him. When in reality he probably just needed some forgiveness and extra love since he was so angry and struggled to let people in.
Matteo's death did seem like a shock at first. But then when I thought about it I realized how he potentially might have been feeling and what led him to that decision. Mirella was the first person he was ever able to sorta let in, even though he had to do it as Nicola. He shared books with her and went bowling which are big pieces of himself he never shared with anyone. But then when he pushed her away, for the first time he actually tried to call back and open up. He never had called back before, but she didn't answer. So the one person he ever was able to try and repair his relationship with rejected him. He truly felt like he had no one in the end. I also think seeing his family all together happy without him, and how he might have felt like an outsider at that party also pushed him to make that decision.
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