A NYtimes article on an interesting-sounding new Italian film:
"Francesca wanted to decant reality into something that wasn’t a documentary,” said Mr. Barbacetto, who has covered many Italian corruption scandals for Il Diario magazine. “At the same time, she wanted to make a film that went beyond current events.”
A result is the depiction of a society mired in moral ambiguity and selective law abidance. History shows, Ms. Comencini said, that Italians have always had a highhanded relationship with rules and legality and an ambiguous relationship with democracy. But in the past, institutions like the Roman Catholic Church and the strongly ideological political parties in Italy helped keep individual ambitions in check.
“What’s new is the money,” she said. “And, especially during the last 20 years, the idea that it’s O.K. to use power and rules for personal profit.”
A second, equally powerful leitmotif concerns maternity and the inability to procreate, and this too is a direct reference to real life: Italy has one of the lowest birthrates in the world.
“Our fertility rate is low because Italy is desperate without knowing it,” Ms. Comencini said. “It is hedonistic, but not happy.” She added, “You have to sense that a moral cradle exists before you go about having children.”
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