I enjoyed watching this film in class today. It was much somber than what we have watched so far but I gained further insight on Italian familial dynamics and themes of childhood and parenthood. For my review, I wanted to focus on the character of Anna who was the mother of Bruno and Valeria. She’s characterized by jumping from man to man who all verbally and or physically abuses her, which her children specifically Bruno witness on many occasions. In class discussion, it was brought up how her character is flat and never changed. I personally disagreed with this, due to the story not being solely about her; it is Bruno’s story and accounts of the past that move the film. While Anna may not be as focused I believe she adds a lot to the story. By her not changing or being considered ‘flat’ it is representative of reality in the fact that people are often very averse to change especially if they are adults. Throughout the whole movie, Anna’s goal is to love, protect, and provide a stable lifestyle for her children. Through this goal she did not seem to change her tactics on how to get to that point, men seemed to be her way to get the needs of her children. This led me to question how she got to this point of becoming reliant on men to meet her needs, which I believe holds cultural implications. The movie purposely does not answer this question, which adds more ability to contemplate and interpret what the movie is trying to put across. Anna’s character really stuck with me throughout the film and after, I sympathized with her due to her great love for her children that never wavered. But could she have done more to provide a better lifestyle or did she do her absolute best? I have a lot of questions after watching this film touching on what more of the backstory behind the characters are. But I think this shows how well the movie did in making the audience think about what they watched.
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