It's an engrossing political love story, with a strong sense of the shadings within the daily lives of these characters.
My Brother Is An Only Child (2006)
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Reviews Counted:18
Fresh:16
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Luchetti takes advantage of the storyline's historical context without sacrificing his cast's fine performances or the script's light wit.
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: Already a smash in its native Italy, MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD, which was presented at this year’s Cannes and Toronto film festivals, reunites director Luchetti with longtime collaborators Sandro... Already a smash in its native Italy, MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD, which was presented at this year’s Cannes and Toronto film festivals, reunites director Luchetti with longtime collaborators Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli, best known as screenwriters of the highly acclaimed “The Best of Youth.” Set in a small Italian town in the 60’s and 70’s, the film tells the story of two brothers who want to change the world – but in completely different ways. The elder, Manrico (Riccardo Scarmaccio), is a handsome, charismatic firebrand who becomes the prime mover in the local Communist party. Accio, (Elio Germano) the younger, more rebellious brother, finds his own contrarian voice by joining the reactionary Fascists. What starts as a typical tale of sibling rivalry becomes the story of the polarizing and paralyzing politics of those turbulent times and, the rift between the brothers is further intensified when Accio realizes that he loves his brother’s girlfriend, Francesca (Diane Fleri) who, like everyone else, is blind to Manrico’s increasingly dangerous ideas. An intensely cinematic and incredibly incisive film about the dreams and disillusionments of the 60’s and 70’s, MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD is set in the exact era of the groundbreaking early classics of Bernardo Bertolucci and Marco Bellochio. Not only does Luchetti pay explicit homage to those films – “Before the Revolution,” “Fist in the Pocket,” and “China is Near” – he comes very close to matching their beauty, intelligence, and youthful exuberance. --© THINKFilm [More]
Starring: Angela Finocchiaro, Luca Zingaretti, Elio Germano, Riccardo Scamarcio
Starring: Angela Finocchiaro, Luca Zingaretti, Elio Germano, Riccardo Scamarcio, Diane Fleri, Alba Rohrwacher, Massimo Popolizio
Director: Daniele Luchetti
Director: Daniele Luchetti
Producer: Riccardo Tozzi, Giovanni Stabilini, Marco Chimenz
Screenwriter: Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli, Daniele Luchetti
Composer: Franco Piersanti
Studio: ThinkFilm
Reviews for My Brother Is An Only Child
Fast-paced, well-acted and acute about sibling rivalry, the film nonetheless fails to leave a strong impression.
This is such a lovely film from writer/director Daniele Luchetti, nostalgic perhaps, but with that indefinable Italian whimsy that takes serious political themes and undermines them beautifully.
The performances are astonishing, perhaps enabled by the flawless script.
Daniele Luchetti's fluent, heartfelt Italian picture is the story of two brothers born after the war, who come of age in the 1960s and drift apart in the paranoid, violent, sour political atmosphere of Italy in the 70s.
Although the movie never quite dispels the sense of being dated (it could have been made anytime in the past 40 years), it's a memorable, often moving timepiece.
Thanks to the captivating performances, this is well worth checking out.
If some of this sounds like stereotypical Italian behavior, and if in fact My Brother Is an Only Child has a weakness for abrupt and melodramatic plot devices, it has other virtues that make it truly satisfying.
My Brother Is an Only Child is a lively minor addendum to the grand tradition of Italian fraternal cinema.
Latest News for My Brother Is An Only Child
March 25, 2008:
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July 24, 2007:
Mio fratelle e figlio unico (My Brother is an Only Child) - preview & trailer ![]()
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