Living It Up

 

Mirella (Sabrina Ferilli) and Bruno (Claudio Bigagli) get married in 1989 when Italy seems about to enter a period of economic prosperity. But the little town of Piombino, the steel industry for which Bruno and a great part of the population work faces hard times and Bruno as well many others receive letters announcing they are laid off. Meanwhile Mirella, who works at the check-out of a supermarket, takes up with Gerry Fumo (Massimo Ghini), a local popular showman and TV presenter, who as fallen in love with her beauty. Bruno tries to start a business with some friends but the stress and worry give him a heart attack. Only Rossella (Paola Tiziana Cruciani), a friend secretly in love with him, is around to help him.

 

 

Hardboiled Egg

 

Ovosodo is the district in the heart of Livorno where Piero Mansani (Edoardo Gabriellini) was born in 1974. Ovosodo is also the nickname he was given as a teenager for his tough exterior but his tender nature. The son of a former dock worker who is in and out of prison, he knows what distress is since his mother died. Piero grows up with a retarded brother and a broken-hearted young step mother in the chaos of a working class condominium, amidst washing, burp competitions and friendly madmen. Piero finds in Giovanna (Nicoletta Braschi), his teacher, the person who can understand him. He devours the books she lends him, and from a serious and shy boy, he turns into an emotional adolescent and finally into a tough though sentimental young man. His world is inhabited by a number of characters that step by step will make him understand how the world works. Like and adventure novel, this universe narrates the story of a boy, his encounters, his education and his loves.

 

 

N – Napoleon and Me

 

1814. Upon arriving on the Isle of Elba, where he has been exiled, Napoleon (Daniel Auteuil) is welcomed with enthusiasm by the island's populace and notables. Martino Papucci (Elio Germano), the youngest son of a family of tradesmen of Portoferraio, schoolteacher idealist and libertarian, budding poet and lover of Baroness Emilia (Monica Bellucci) instead hates the ex dictator and dreams of killing him in revenge for having betrayed the revolutionary ideal of the thousand of young boys sent out to be slaughtered on the battlefields across Europe. And so when he is offered the post of clerk and librarian of the “King of Elba”, he accepts with the intention of finally accomplishing his plan. But the tyrannicidial feat proves to be more difficult than expected. In the boredom of exile and probably having perceived the young revolutionary's hostility, Napoleon amuses himself in deceiving the young man into believing that he is a pathetically declining hero, defeated, tired and repentant. The mocking finale turns the tables once more.