Director juggles dual demands
While concerned cineastes bemoan the lack of women behind the camera, Italian writer-director Nanni Moretti makes one his autobiographical avatar in “Mia Madre,” about an emotionally fraying filmmaker (Margherita Buy) dealing with crises professional and personal, namely a problembeset movie shoot and the declining health of her mother (Giulia Lazzarini), a beloved Latin teacher.
This quietly wise and funny mix of a gentler “8 1⁄2” and an illness drama is tinged with the kind of honest sadness and comic frustrations that suggest a daily journal come to life.
With an unassuming directness, Moretti — who also plays Margherita’s brother and partner-in-caregiving, Vittorio — toggles between work and life pressures in a way that finds the curious feelings and epiphanies that bind the two and give meaning to the whole dance.
A lot of that comes from Buy’s rich, deep sigh of a portrayal, equal parts selfdoubt and forthrightness. (At one point, she hilariously berates her crew for listening to her.)
There’s also a wonderfully outsized turn by John Turturro as a blustery American movie star who can never remember his Italian lines. “Mia Madre” is on one level about loss, but it’s also a humorously poignant movie about whether any of us know exactly what to do when life says “Action.” “Mia Madre.” In Italian and English, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes. MPAA rating: R, for language. Playing: Laemmle Royal, West Los Angeles; Laemmle Playhouse 7, Pasadena; and Laemmle Town Center 5, Encino.