Set in the lovely, lovely Italian city of Lecce (where I've spent many happy hours wandering the streets) this delightful film by director Ferzan Ozpetek has a neat premise.
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The conservative and domineering father of a wealthy pasta-producing family has two sons, his pride and joy. But the younger confesses to his older brother that he is gay and he is about to come out at a big family dinner, in full expectation of being barred from the house and disowned (when he can then happily resume his gay life in Rome).
To the younger brother's shock, his older brother steals his thunder and, himself, comes out as gay at the dinner -- to be duly thrown out and disowned. The younger son is left running the pasta factory when his father has a heart attack from the shame, scared that if he now comes out the news will kill his father.
Cue a delightful -- almost farcical -- examination of a wealthy Italian family riven by their own sense of what is right and proper.
Then, just as the younger son feels he has things under control, his gay friends and his lover turn-up at the family home.
Ozpetek hit my radar with his first film, Hamam: Turkish Bath, way back in 1997, and has produced a string of interesting and intriguing (if not completely satisfactory) films since then. This is his most mature, wittiest work.
It has an easy mixture of belly-laughs and emotional engagement, a neat twist on the now well-trodden path of the coming out tale. And it also has the best sweet-old-lady-killing-herself scene since 1990's The Company of Strangers (Le fabuleux gang des sept).
I liked Loose Cannons a lot.
2 comments:
well maybe not all is dead in Italy...
This film opened the Gay Film Festival in South Africa. I saw thi sin Cape Town last night, and it was excellent !
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