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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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  • 11 out of 12 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 3 stars

    Charming, moving and attractive Italian movie

    In terms of spectacle, part of the appeal of the Lord of the Rings films has been the terrific use of New Zealand's topography which accentuates the grandeur of the events being presented on film. Add other Antipodean film such as Walkabout and Rabbit-proof fence, Chris Marker's Japan in Sans Soleil and even the Midlands in Atom Egoyan's Felicia's Journey and you can see a grand tradition of film as travelogue. The other thing these films have in common is that they also have great scripts and drama so that the movie isn't merely an excuse to show the landscape. Respiro is another film in this tradition. Dismissed by some critics as being a bit slight, the leisurely pace of the film does accentuate the feeling of a sun-drenched holiday which isn't hurt by the amount of both young male and female bodies in swimming costumes or less.

    The plot there is concerns a mother whose mental health is slowly deteriorating and whose erratic behaviour (such as releasing the town's stray dogs on the streets) give the locals cause for concern. Not wanting to see her locked up her son hides her in a cave on the cliff face by the ocean and it is her relationship with him & his younger brother that provides the backbone of the film.

    Beautifully shot with subtle characterisation and drama this is a brilliant little Italian film that is more than welcome in the long, dark and cold British winter...

      • AlexinLondon from London
      • Posted 28 Feb 2004 15:45

  • 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 ...