IFF24 Caro Diario M

Caro Diario is autobiographical, deeply personal, and as funny as it is profound and original. It is impossible not to be drawn into Moretti’s warm-hearted, neurotic vision of the world. Divided into three chapters exploring different aspects of Moretti’s life. The first, ‘On My Vespa’, pays homage to his beloved Rome, the second, ‘Islands’, takes us on a literary journey to the Aeolian Islands, and the third, ‘Doctors’, is a reflection on his own health journey. Somehow, wit, a lightness of touch, charm, and ingenuity unify these strands into a coherent and unforgettable film. Early scenes feature Moretti dancing to a Silvana Mangano song that plays from a tiny TV in a neighborhood bar. On the trusty Vespa, he then travels to Ostia to revisit the place where Pier Paolo Pasolini was killed. Early bite-sized vignettes give way to several episodes of his journey south towards the Aeolian Islands, as “director Moretti” searches for some peace and refuge from the consumption-focused society that Pasolini feared was taking over Italy. From there, the plot takes a spider’s path, with Moretti seeking greater and greater isolation, culminating with his friend Gerardo, a Joyce scholar who claims to never watch TV, becoming addicted to soap operas and running for the mainland and away from his principles. The final third of this gem of a film is dedicated to a true story of absurdity in medicine in which Moretti turns to doctors and psychologists to solve his ills — a recurring motif in his thinking cinema.