Format: Internet video on laptop.
After my cynicism reared its ugly head yesterday, I needed a film like Caro Diario (Dear Diary) today. I needed a film that took my cynicism and slapped it around a bit, making me remember that films can be watched with joy without reading anything more into them and that I don’t have to feel guilty for enjoying something with unpleasant gender politics. I needed something that reminded me that film is an artistic medium, yes, but it’s also more. I needed a reminder that I watch movies from a recommended list because there are movies that I will genuinely like that I would otherwise pass over.
Nanni Moretti’s film is a sort of autobiographical journey through part of his life. It consists of three roughly equal parts with a slightly longer middle section. The first half hour (“On My Vespa”) concerns Moretti driving around Rome on his Vespa looking at various neighborhoods and narrating a stream of consciousness collection of thoughts about the decline of Italian film, where people live, and anything else running through his head. The second (“Islands”), is about Moretti and a friend visiting several Italian islands looking for a place to work and runs about 40 minutes. The final half hour (“Doctors”) is about Moretti’s personal battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and his frequent misdiagnoses by various doctors.
