The Salt of Life

This follow-on film by Di Grigorio (to Mid-August Lunch) is in a similar vein, with Di Grigorio once again playing a somewhat hapless, passive male. While in Mid-August Lunch, the hero was beset by friends taking advantage of him and saddling him with a caregiver's role, here he is a somewhat lost and sexually frustrated male, taken advantage of by the women in his life--mother, wife, daughter, and various female acquaintances. Here, the hero yearns for love and romance, but is always betrayed both by circumstance, and his own indecisive nature. The Italian title of the film, "Gianni's Women" is actually far more accurate, and the English-language title is really off the mark and probably misleading. The non-professional nonagenarian who played his mother in the first film reprises her role again, but plays a far more egotistical and self-centered character who abuses her son's devotion. She certainly proves yet again that she is a natural born actress. I liked this movie less than Mid-August Lunch, but it is still a good and watchable film.

This is a sort of follow up to Mid August Lunch, but at the same time its not. The two main characters are the same (Gianni and his mother) but where Gianni was single and living with his mother in a rented flat in Mid August Lunch, He is now (in The Salt of Life) married with a late teens daughter and has his own house and car. It was a bit confusing in that respect as the characters were about the same age as in MAL. Gianni's mother is now in a nursing home and seems to have money to throw around, so its an opposite situation to MAL. Confusing. I watched both movies on the same night so maybe that wasn't a good idea. I did however enjoy TSoL more than MAL even though it was more of the (almost) same. I think I related more to how Gianni was feeling and thinking.

I enjoyed the movie from the very beginning. I would say the beginning and the middle are my favorite. I became a fan of Gianni di Gregorio from Pranzo di Ferragosto. He is charming in this movie too

A movie maybe misunderstood. Poor Gianni isn't transparent to women; they simply take full advantage of his good nature. In addition, they come across as totally self-absorbed and basically selfish from mom, to child, to woman downstairs, to women, wine and no song. It's a though they live in a separate - their own - universe. What goes on in his head? Just the idea of having a woman become involved. There is a secondary theme regarding the state of Italy. The employment situation is not good; the early retirement fully sustains Mik's statement about job getting and neatly aides the bond between them. A great Italian comedy, subtly done, and maybe deeper than meets the eye.

I'm sort of shocked that no other reviewers thought this was totally lame or mediocre at best. I'm supposed to feel bad that Gianni at 50 is so beyond curiosity that he can't engage in a meaningful rapport with anyone, or find some kind of interest or way to be generative with his life? That he has at his age developed no talent or usefulness and has no will to do so, or find a new one, or finally that he has failed to develop the adequate spine in his fifty years to set boundaries with his mother and everybody else?I like watching foreign films because I like seeing a slice of life in another country, picking up a little bit of the language, and seeing actors/real humans that haven't distorted their appearances in the myriad artificial ways that American actors do. For all that, the movie was perfectly lovely.But otherwise, what a flop!

Fabulous dialogue, sweet story, beautiful women, and it takes place in Italy. What more could you want?Writer/director Di Gregorio has a natural style to his acting and directing that you can't help but feel you're there in the thick of things with him.Whether having to deal with his capricious, spend thrift of a mother, his rather non-plussed wife, a daughter with her own relationship problems, and a bevy of beautiful women, all of which Gianni wants to have an affair with but just can't quite cut the mustard, or pizza I should say, Di Gregorio works to keep his composure and his male sensibility in his ever changing female centric world.The ending is a delight!Worth repeat viewing!And check out his previous feature, Mid-August Lunch.

Italian movies do not have an "agenda" but are instead stories about problems people have. In this movie, Gianni, as he did in "Mid-August Lunch," has a demanding mother who expects him to come every time she calls. She has a lovely apartment which opens on to a park-like setting that is absolutely beautiful. Gianni, who lives with his wife and daughter, worries about the way his mother spends money. He himself contributes a small pension to his household, but would like to control his mother's money. That said, he is still a lovable character who tries to help the people around him. If he lusts after women, it just shows he is a man, no? I plan to see the movie at least once every few months.

I really enjoyed watching this film. I viewed the director's first film and was open to having him indulge me into a story about the angst of an aging Italian man. Frankly any woman who would give a damn about this man's circumstance needs to get her own head examined but to see it with his perspective was enlightening...I actually found myself sympathizing with his situation. The characters are delightful and the nuance in which the lead character portrays his complex relationships are what makes this movie...I give it a 4 out of 5:)

This film - ‘Gianni e le donne’ (Gianni and the women) in the original Italian - is the second film from Gianni di Gregorio following his debut ‘Mid-August Lunch’ (2008). The main protagonist, Gianni (played by the director) is a very similar character to the ‘Gianni’ of the earlier film – albeit in a different setting.He is now an early-retired, married man aged around 60 and with a teenage daughter, rather than a bachelor living with his 90 year-old mother (although in this film, his mother is played by the same actress Valeria de Franciscis Bendoni).Gianni is having some kind of late life crisis and feels that he has reached the age when, despite his continuing interest in them, he is invisible to the opposite sex. Their only interest in him seems to be as a general dogsbody. His 90 year old mother still has him at her beck and call and insists he visits her twice daily to change her TV channel; his wife gives him a list of shopping and chores to be getting on with; and the attractive young woman in his apartment block, who he fancies, sees him - not unnaturally - as a grandfatherly type figure and gets him to take her dog for walks.Gianni's best friend, Alfonso, tries to persuade him that he is too young to retire completely from the pursuit of beautiful women, so Gianni embarks on a personal campaign to find one: he sets off in pursuit of his mother’s carer, looks up old girlfriends, agrees to go on a double date with a set of blonde identical twins set up by Alfonso and visits a brothel.But lacking drive and ambition even in this area of his life, his efforts are half-hearted and feeble and have varying degrees of success. I didn’t find this as funny as ‘Mid August Lunch’ and there's something slightly creepy about an older man pursuing much younger women and thinking that he is still in with a chance with them, even though he is harmless rather than objectionable. But this is still a gentle, charming film, and at around 1 hour and 30 minutes it’s just the right length. It meanders a bit, but it’s another charming slice of Italian life.

This is a rather wonderful take on a man of a certain age who wishes for the romantic excesses of his youth - if, that is, had actually had such a youth. He awkwardly goes along with the disastrous and comic efforts of his friend to court romance, when really his heart isn’t in it (though his wistful loins might be). He isn’t particularly unhappy in his marriage just bored as his wife. He’s retired, with time on his hands, and space to imagine being adored and desired; he wants to grow old disgracefully but can’t quite, as it were, get it up to speed. Sad, poignant and funny, with done good performances all round, it’s a gentle film of wistfulness. There’s no great story - he just drifts along. A joy, full of embarrassment and laughter, as he tried to understand his age and purpose.

It is a paradox that director/lead Gianni di Gregorio has, with "Mid-August Lunch" and this, "The Salt of Life", found success and acclaim playing a character called Gianni in his sixties for whom life appears to be stagnating or slipping by. "The Salt of Life" has many of the characteristics which made "Mid-August lunch" such a joy - the honesty, warmth, wonderful acting and resonance for many of us. However it is not quite as endearing and lacks one crucial aspect - "Mid-August Lunch" was a loving paean to Rome in all its glory and sun-baked beaut while here the setting of the Roman rione (or district) of Trastevere is less prominent and less celebrated and simply where the characters live.Despite the similarity of the names of the characters of Gianni and his mother Valeria, the names are everyman names - here Gianni's mother lives in much greater splendour and Gianni is married (just about) and has a daughter. Di Gregorio's hangdog expression is still a delight and the projection for his consistent "virtues and flaws" as an ex says. While the film is quietly political about the situation for young people in Italy today, the real focus is on Gianni and his relationship with his mother, other females and, although less important, his wife and daughter. Gianni is the man for whom no one has a bad word and we will him success and happiness.Overall, "The Salt of Life" is even more wistful than "Mid August Lunch" and its humour less vivid. While it did not leave as marked an impression as its predecessor, I recommend it strongly.

In the same style as his previous, the 2008 film 'Mid-August Lunch', Gianni Di Gregorio again directs and takes the principle role. He has cast himself as a dispirited husband in his 50s dominated by his mother in her nineties, stuck in a marriage he does not believe in and wishing for a last-gasp romance. He is unhappy with an anxious look about him on the lookout for potential conquests and always in the background his mother constantly demanding attention. You cannot help but be reminded in some way of a similarity with Silvio Berlusconi. Is this a commentary of the Italian male psyche and the eventual onslaught of old age? Another gentle comedic look at the late stage of life.

Saw this immediately after watching "Mid-August Lunch," and found this to be a bit disappointing, by comparison. The two main actors are the same from the previous film, but this time they play different characters. This one lacks a bit of salt. It feels as if Di Gregorio was pressed to make a kind of a sequel to his first hit, but the result was a bit off de mark. Perhaps if I had not seen the other one just before, this could be better appreciated.