What Time Is It?

A lawyer from Rome travels to Civitavecchia to see his son, who is doing his military service. Over one day they eat together, walk by the sea and try to talk. The father wants to hand his son a future; the son wants nothing he is offering. The film is not interested in generational conflict. It is interested in love spoken in the wrong language: the father delivers his affection as money, plans and advice, and each time leaves his son feeling inadequate. Both are right in intention, and the result is still a break. The form is small: one city, one day, two characters. Ettore Scola shot the whole film in Civitavecchia in February 1989. The seafront, the railway station and the area around the barracks are its entire geography. Marcello Mastroianni plays the father and Massimo Troisi the son. The two shared the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 1989 Venice festival, and Troisi also took the Pasinetti Prize. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian cinema and two-hander character films. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for events. The film is almost entirely conversation and stalls at times in the middle.