Dearest Relatives, Poisonous Relations

A family comedy. Everyone comes home for Christmas. The old couple live in a provincial town; their four children arrive with their spouses and children to stay a few days. The first hours are familiar: food, presents, old photographs, the noise of children. Then the mother says something. She says they can no longer live alone, that the father's health has gone, and asks one of the children to take them in. The table goes quiet. From there the film becomes a negotiation. Each child explains their situation: one's house is small, one's job is demanding, one's spouse would not accept it. Nobody says no directly; each says another sibling is better placed. What the narrative is interested in is not feeling but arithmetic: the language of love continues while what is being discussed is the sharing of a burden. The film defends none of its characters. The old couple are not innocent either; they have their own expectations and their own ways of accusing. The last section steps outside the limits of comedy and the tone hardens. What happens there will not be written here; the whole effect of the film is in it. Mario Monicelli directed; he was one of the masters of Italian comedy, and this late work counts among the darkest examples of the form. Who it is for: anyone who likes black humour and films written ruthlessly about family. Who it is not for: anyone expecting warmth from a Christmas film; the view here is cold and never gives way.