Aprile

Moretti's diary film and the clearest instance of him using his own life as material. The span covered is March 1994 to August 1997. Two things happen at once: Moretti becomes a father, and the Italian left wins the election that follows Berlusconi's fall. Moretti wants to make a documentary about that election but cannot get started, because half of his mind is on another project he has been building for years: a musical about a Roman pastry cook. The comedy comes from the paralysis between those two intentions. Caught between the responsible, adult political documentary and the childish fantasy of a dancing pastry chef, he finishes neither. Moretti does not present this as a failing; he simply records it. The birth of his son Pietro appears in the film as real footage. Who it is for: viewers who know Moretti and like cinema in the first person. Who it is not for: anyone unfamiliar with Italian politics. Half the film rests on the headlines and names of the period, and without that context some passages fall flat.