Title: Noi e la Giulia (Giulia and us) 

Director: Edoardo Leo

Starring: Edoardo Leo, Luca Argentero, Claudio Amendola, Anna Foglietta, Stefano Fresi, Carlo Buccirosso.

Giulia is one of the most popular female baby names in Italy, but it is also the name of a charming old fashioned car made by Alfa Romeo in the 60s and 70s; which in this flick will become the emblem of the pursuit of dreams during the mature stage of life.

‘Noi e la Giulia’ is the story of fully grown men who finally take the guts to stick to their Plan B: letting go of the profession they despised, to start anew by building their own activity.

Diego (Luca Argentero), Fausto (Edoardo Leo) and Claudio (Stefano Fresi) are in their forties and find themselves joining forces as complete strangers, to set up a farm resort. They’ll be joined by Sergio (Claudio Amendola) a fifty year old who still believes in fighting class warfare, and Elisa (Anna Foglietta) a young and eccentrically sweet pregnant woman. Their endeavour will be determined by the encounter with Vito (Carlo Buccirosso), a peculiar member of Camorra who approaches them to demand protection money, who arrives driving a vintage Giulia 1300, equipped with an alluring radio cassette player…

The movie which literally translates “Giulia and us” has a romantic charm to it, for the nostalgia towards vintage memorabilia and the simple life, as well as the idea that it’s never too late to start from scratch to attain happiness. The script is rather faulty since the characters are exceedingly stereotyped and many jokes are terribly lame. Nevertheless there are moments of genuine amusement and the dullness of the screenplay is improved by the excellent acting skills of the entire cast. All in all you will leave the movie theatre thinking that there are no registry office limitations for the pursuit of your dream, all it takes is audacity, a little recklessness and the right travelling companions.

Technical: B

Acting: B+

Story: C

Overall: C+

Written by: Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Noi e la Giulia (Giulia and us) Movie Review

By Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, is a film critic, culture and foreign affairs reporter, screenwriter, film-maker and visual artist. She studied in a British school in Milan, graduated in Political Sciences, got her Masters in screenwriting and film production and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and Los Angeles. Chiara’s “Material Puns” use wordplay to weld the title of the painting with the materials placed on canvas, through an ironic reinterpretation of Pop-Art, Dadaism and Ready Made. She exhibited her artwork in Milan, Rome, Venice, London, Oxford, Paris and Manhattan. Chiara works as a reporter for online, print, radio and television and also as a film festival PR/publicist. As a bi-lingual journalist (English and Italian), who is also fluent in French and Spanish, she is a member of the Foreign Press Association in New York, the Women Film Critics Circle in New York, the Italian Association of Journalists in Milan and the Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean. Chiara is also a Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at IED University in Milan.

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