sweety_pi Don't miss this cozy film about life with ordinary adults but guess what, they show us that we can be extraordinary and beautiful.I wanted to be part of the lives portrayed - - if not a full-time member of this little society at least part-time.I loved the late, great Jerry Orbach and Gianni Di Gregorio is the Italian Jerry Orbach. Wonderful portrayal of a human living to be his best.Enough edge and anticipation to make the movie realistic. A wonderful story of people who want to live and know how to live right.Beautiful light, great direction and cinematography.Go on! Brave the sub-titles. It's worth every second.

reelinspiration The cliché of the Italian bachelor living at home with a doting mother who waits on him and prepares his favorite meals is turned on it's head in the delicious Italian treat, "Mid-August Lunch." In this film, unemployed fifty-ish bachelor Gianni (Gianni Di Gregorio) shows respect for his ninety-something mother by taking good care of her and lovingly preparing their meals.The small family has been living off of credit for some time and is months behind on their maintenance and electric bills for their ancient apartment. The landlord is willing to forgive the dept if they take in his mother so he can get away for the Mid-August holiday. The landlord drops off his mother AND his aunt. And soon the doctor's mother joins the mix. So Gianni must survive the weekend playing good host to four strong-willed shut-ins. What impressed me most was how he never loses his manners but treats these woman with the respect earned by those who have reached a certain age. This is a film about the joys of entertaining. It illustrates the isolation that comes with aging and our continued need to socialize. There is an Italian saying, "A tavola no s'invecchia," that articulates the theme perfectly, "The passage of time is suspended with experiencing the pleasure of good food, good wine and company." "Mid-August Lunch" dishes up "slice of life" humor with simple, authentic Italian flavors like those in the perch with potatoes, oregano and rosemary lovingly served at the holiday feast. Movie Blessings! Jana Segal, Reel Inspiration

tjackson To help pay some debts, Gianni, an unemployed, single, middle aged man, agrees to look after four very old women for a night. Antics DO NOT ensue, as you might expect, but friendship food,and joy. The director, Gianni Di Gregorio, wrote it, acted in it, used his own apartment, based it on an incident in his own life, and then and cast the women from hundreds of non-professionals. The result is a unique and brilliant short story of a film. It was pointed out that August 15 is Feast of the Assumption, and that in religious mythology Mary "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory". The old women in this movie are also ascending to heaven without death, and the movie glories in the blessings and quirks of old age. If you love your mother, Italy, or Italian movies – see it!

stripedcat The events of this "small" (and short: just 75 minutes) movie take place in Rome, in the popular Trastevere district, over two days: the 14th and the 15th of August. Those are the eve and the holiday of Ferragosto, when everybody in Italy wishes to be out of town with their loved ones, friends or family, to enjoy a relaxing day in the cool. This is not the case of Gianni, a middle-aged, single man, who finds himself trapped in his own home with his elderly mother. Gianni has a problem with money (from the appearance and location of his house, and the refined, posh way of speaking of his mother, we soon learn that he belongs to an impoverished high middle-class family), so when the manager of his block of flats proposes to cut off all his debts if he provides hospitality for a couple of days to his own elderly mother, Marina, Gianni cannot refuse. For a few hundred Euros he agrees also to look after to "zia Maria", the manager's elderly aunt. Later, after an umpteenth free call, Gianni cannot refuse to give hospitality to his doctor's mother, Grazia, an elderly woman on a strict diet. Gianni manages to find beds for the three women and finds himself full-time employed in their care: cooking all their meals, helping Grazia to get asleep, coping with Marina's whims, helping the ladies to get along... Many funny moments follow,especially due to the eccentricity and sometimes childishness of the elderly ladies. None of them is played by a professional actress, and their spontaneity is put to great effect. In spite of the comedy and the light tone, what you get here is a movie filled with serious, even somber themes: the role of elderly people in our society, their loneliness, the inability of their children to deal with them. But we also see the liveliness of the ladies, their desire to live a full life till the end, their respect for those who have a kind word for them. A well-made, important film, which deserves the success it's having in Italy.