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Respiro Details

2002 Certificate 12
  • Rated:
  • 60
  • from 2306 members

Grazia, wife and mother, lives in the close knit community of South-West Sicily. She has an unconventional attitude which is not accepted by the village elders. It is decided that Grazia is in need of medical help and she is therefore sent away to the city... Read more

Starring Valeria Golino, Vincenzo Amato, Veronica D'Agostino, Filippo Pucillo
Director Emanuelle Crialese
Genres Drama, World Cinema

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Respiro

Grazia, wife and mother, lives in the close knit community of South-West Sicily. She has an unconventional attitude which is not accepted by the village elders. It is decided that Grazia is in need of medical help and she is therefore sent away to the city...

Starring Valeria Golino, Vincenzo Amato, Veronica D'Agostino, Filippo Pucillo
Director Emanuelle Crialese
Studio PALISADES TARTAN
Run time DVD: 1 hr 31 mins
Certificate Certificate 12
Genres Drama, World Cinema
Language DVD: Italian
Subtitles DVD: English
Released DVD: 26 Jan 2004
Production year: 2002
Format DVD

  • Critics' reviews (2) of Respiro

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  • 3 stars out of 5

    The perils of insularity dawn upon a Sicilian fishing village in this touching tale of envy, ignorance and acceptance. Unable to cope with wife Valeria Golino's mood swings, Vincenzo Amato bows to communal pressure and agrees to have her committed to an institution on the mainland. However, Golino is protected in her beach hideaway by teenage son Francesco Casisa, who admires her free spirit even though he doesn't fully understand it. With Fabio Zamarion's camera contrasting the island of Lampedusa's natural beauty with its inhabitants' struggle to survive, director Emanuele Crialese's drama avoids rose-tinted realism by remaining focused on landscape and character.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 08 Oct 2007

  • A vivid, wispy missive from a strange land that turns out to be the small fishing island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily,... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out
    • Posted 04 Nov 2008

  • Most helpful member's review of Respiro

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  • 13 out of 13 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    simple yet beautiful

    This is a beautiful film with fantastic scenery. It is a very simple story, very well shot and gently paced. It makes you feel like you are on the beach watching something from a far. I assume that many of the younger members of the cast are non professionals but they are exellent and have real character. The plot is easy to follow and although there is no real conclusion at the end, I felt satisfied with how the director decided to close the film. A real pleasure to watch.

      • A customer from Battersea
      • Posted 20 Jul 2004 15:16

  • Most recent members' review of Respiro

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  • 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Respiro - you could have someone's eye out with that!

    This is yet another excellent film from the italian, sorry sicillian stable. Who cares about brushing up the Italian, you can go to an italian restauant or an evening class to do that. This film is a meal that is flavoured with spices and herbs to make you tingle and savour every moment, from the sensual and passionate but not too revealing Grazia, to the lads who were working, playing, fighting (& being disciplined to the full when necessary). You might have noticed there were no computers or TV as such, just healthy boisterous kids with an appetite for life. (Something we have left behind). Maybe you didn't like the 'dogs' scenes but this is real life in the Med where folk are afraid of rabies so don't moan about something if you ain't been there. What a fantastic end to the film as well, kinda makes you think how's she gonna explain this one and lets you imagination keep you awake working it out. I want to go there and experience the heat, the sea, the food and the people. But until I do I hope to enjoy many more films like this.

    (Oh and there are subtitles if you need them!)

      • SUDHIR SHAH from Brentford, Middlesex
      • Posted 20 Jun 2005 22:12

  • News and features

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    The Golden Door

    Golden Door

    • 27 Jun 2007

    Released as 'Nuovomundo' in its native Italy - 'The New World' is taken, right? - Golden Door is the second film to reach these shores by Emanuele Crialese, the writer-director of Respiro. Set at the turn of the twentieth century, it's a film about a family of illiterate Sicilian peasants coming to America, spurred on by doctored photographs of money growing on trees and chickens the size of donkeys. They find passage on a great steam ship. Men and women are immediately separated, and such is... Read more

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Rating breakdown

2,306 Member ratings
  • 100
131
  • 90
154
  • 80
342
  • 70
401
  • 60
537
  • 50
282
  • 40
202
  • 30
120
  • 20
92
  • 10
45

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      • Grazia, wife and mother, lives in the close knit community of South-West Sicily. She has an unconventional attitude which is not accepted by the village elders. It is decided that Grazia is in need ...