30/09/2011

A few months ago we had left them trying their luck in cinemas with a detective film (see news), but without success. Now the Vanzina brothers are coming back to a more congenial genre for them: comedy. Ex - Amici come prima, directed by Carlo Vanzina and written together with his brother Enrico, might sound like a déjà-vu, only two years following another Ex, the one by Fausto Brizzi. But it is a deliberate operation and the Vanzinas’ film, if not exactly a sequel (stories and cast are different), bears exactly that hallmark.

"Up until now it was our films that started series and inspired second chapters", explained Carlo Vanzina, "in this case we were the ones to reap from the heritage of a film with the great success of Brizzi’s Ex. It was like closing a circle, seeing as he himself confessed to us that our Sapore di mare was the main source of inspiration for Night before the Exams [+see also:
trailer
film profile]".

And as such, now as then, the ingredients of the film are an intricate interweaving of couples which break down with loves that are born, a whirlwind of misunderstandings, good comical rhythms and a stellar cast: Alessandro Gassman and Vincenzo Salemme - both already in Brizzi’s films and currently on the big screen in Baciato dalla fortuna [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - as well as Enrico Brignano, Tosca d'Aquino, Anna Foglietta, Teresa Mannino, Ricky Memphis, Gabriella Pession, Natasha Stefanenko.

The Vanzinas add to that a touch of current affairs (The Member of the European Parliament played by Salemme, with his references to greediness, shady politics and escorts) and a pinch of American-style comedy featuring Sandra Bullock (Foglietta as a divorce lawyer, disillusioned with men, who, through a joke of fate, falls in love with her client’s ex-husband). A formula which is explicitly inspired by Love Actually [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the 2003 film with Hugh Grant: "We looked to that film, not only for the interweaving structure, but also for the story about the Prime Minister with love issues (there it was Grant, here it is Stefanenko, editor’s note)", Enrico Vanzina admits.

Ex - Amici come prima is produces by Fulvio and Federica Lucisano for Italian International Film in collaboration with Rai Cinema, and will be out in Italy on October 7, in 500 copies distributed by 01.

(Translated from Italian)