EVERYBODY'S FINE (STANNO TUTTI BENE)

Italy, 1990, 115 minutes, Colour.
Marcello Mastroianni, Salvatore Cascio.
Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.

Everybody's Fine was written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, the writer and director of the Oscar winner Cinema Paradiso. Tornatore is still nostalgic in this film - there is a touch of humour but there is a wry look at what happens to contemporary families.

The film focuses on Matteo Scuro, played particularly well by Marcello Mastroianni. Matteo talks to his dead wife, he is an optimist and everything is fine. However, his children do not come for the summer holidays and he decides to go and visit them, unannounced. This gives the opportunity for Tornatore to take us on a tour of contemporary Italy from Sicily, where the action opens, to Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan and Turin. We get an impression of Italy as a whole, the range of its people, the emotional crises. On the train, Matteo meets a group of pensioners and is attracted by Michelle Morgan in a guest role.

The film is the story of an old man, living still in the securities of the past, loving his children optimistically - but failing to realise what has happened to them all. His journey is one of sadness and disillusionment, especially with learning of the suicide of his favourite son. He returns home, still giving an impression that everybody's fine - and talking in this optimistic way to his dead wife. (There is a cameo performance by the young Salvatore Cascio from Cinema Paradiso as the little boy who is to grow into the older man who suicides.)

1. The work of Tornatore, Italy, humanity and sentiment, universal insight and understanding?

2. His tour of contemporary Italy: Sicily, Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan, Turin? The impact of this journey for Italian audiences? Worldwide audiences?

3. The focus of the present, the returns to the past? The range of the musical score, Matteo's love for opera, Ennio Morricone's themes and their moods to suggest Matteo's journey?

4. The title and its ironies? The truth? Matteo's proverb that wine can even come from grapes - and its application to what had happened to himself and his family?

5. Marcello Mastroianni's portrait of Matteo: the old Sicilian man, in the village on the coast, talking to his wife in the cemetery, his happiness, a gentle man, his memories and the visualising of each of the children as he met them, the summers at the beach (even with the mysterious menace of the monster in his memories)? Wanting his children to spend the summer, hiring the cabins, giving them back? His device of having everybody ask him questions? The decision to go on the trip, the farewell to the railway man? His asking the passengers to ask him questions, showing his photos proudly, his talk? Their mixed reactions? Naples, the big city, the dirt and squalor, the university, in the line, asking questions? The apartment, waiting outside? The answering machine - and people standing still? The prostitute and the joke about the thigh? His going to Rome, the political background, surprising Canio? Canio's family? The little girl the children, the presents - and the upset of the present? Reading stories? The political background? Canio's job - and his dramatising it for his father? Going to Florence - with Tosca, accidents on the highway, standing and contemplating the deer holding up all the traffic? His pleasure at meeting Tosca, her lavish apartment, her fashion work, cheerfulness? The baby - and its watching the television, and watching the washing machine? His applauding at Tosca's performance at the fashion show? Milan and its beauty, going to La Scala, his son in the orchestra, the lies and the truth, going home, the young son talking to his grandfather, telling him about the pregnancy and seeking his advice? Going to Turin, seeing Norma, the family, ordinary life?

6. The interlude with the pensioners, becoming friendly with them, the woman, walking along the beach at Rimini, the parody of what happens to the elderly, taken on tours? The dance - and his wanting to dance, his physical collapse? The friendliness of the woman - sharing memories, companionship? Her fixing his photo?

7. The importance of the reunion with his sons, the meal, the revelation of the truth about Alvaro? His response, avoiding the truth, accusations of lies? His being hurt, his disbelief? His expressions of understanding?

8. The return home, his collapse on the train, the passengers and their lack of interest, the photo - and his saying it was a spectacle rather than his family? IN hospital, the family assembling? Their concern, his giving advice to his grandson?

9. The return home, the railway man, the town, talking to his wife at her grave, pretending that everything was going well?

10. The flashbacks, Alvaro and getting the money for the white hairs, the children on the beach, the questions and their imagination, the strange monster?

11. The cross-section of Italian people, in Sicily, at the university, in politics, in the fashion world, the pensioners, the orchestra and the opera, the old?

12. Memories and realities, emotions, facing reality?

13. The portrait of Alvaro, his absence, winning the prize, the irony of his depression and his killing himself, disappearing at sea? Canio, rehearsing the speech, the politics, timing the speech, giving it to his boss, his own political ambitions and hopes? Family, wife and children? Tosca, the fashions, the baby - and its really being hers? The lover and his breaking off with her? (Matteo and his dreams - and knowing the truth about Tosca?) The son in Milan, playing in the orchestra, his making a mistake after 10 years, trying to avoid the truth with his father? The young man, the pregnant girlfriend and his needing advice? Norma and her ordinary life in Turin?

14. A portrait of Italians of the '80s - ideals and hopes of the past, present realities and disillusionment and disappointment?