The Family Friend Details

2006

Rated:
60
from 1940 members

Starring	Geremia Longobardo, Luigi Angelillo, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Liliana Bernacciano
Director	Paolo Sorrentino
Genres	Drama, World Cinema

The Family Friend

Paulo Sorrentino's effortlessly stylish film centres on Geremia di Geremei, a sleazy and misanthropic small-time loan shark who lives in a dingy apartment with his invalid mother. When a cash-strapped couple approach him for a loan to pay for the wedding of their daughter Rosalba, Geremia finds himself hopelessly obsessed by the bride-to-be's stunning beauty and takes advantage of his self-proclaimed position as "a friend of the family" to get as close to her as possible. But in the icily disdainful Rosalba, he may finally have met his match.

Starring	Geremia Longobardo, Luigi Angelillo, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Liliana Bernacciano, Clara Bindi, Giovanni Caruso, Laura Chiatti
Director	Paolo Sorrentino
Studio	ARTIFICIAL EYE
Run time	DVD: 1 hr 50 mins Watch now: 1 hr 40 mins
Certificate	DVD: , Watch Online:
Genres	Drama, World Cinema
Language	DVD: Italian Watch Online: Italian
Subtitles	DVD: English Watch Online: English
Released	DVD: 23 Jul 2007 Watch now: 14 Oct 2009 Production year: 2006
Watch now	Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
Format	DVD

Critics' reviews of The Family Friend
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As insistently stylish (both visually and aurally) as Paolo Sorrentinos second feature The Consequences of... read more on Time Out
- Geoff Andrew,
- Time Out
- Posted 04 Nov 2008
Most helpful member's review of The Family Friend
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46 out of 58 people found this review helpful

Beautifully Shot, Utterly Bleak

When I saw this film, I hadn't seen the director's previous success 'The Consequences of Love', and nor had I heard any music by Antony and the Johnsons. I mention this, as the most striking thing about this film is the soundtrack (Antony and the Johnsons, and also Elgar's Cello Concerto) and the incredible photography and scene realisation. I since saw the director's other film, and bought the Antony and the Johnsons album. I'm not sure whether this is better or worse than The Consequences of Love; it's probably less funny, and more unpleasant in terms of plot. But it's probably even more beautifully shot.

The plot is unrepentantly bleak and cynical. A grotesque town money-lender (played to perfection by Luigi Angelillo) becomes obsessed with the town beauty. So, although there are some wonderful moments of bathetic humour, the film is overall, quite depressing (and especially cynical about love), so not recommended for a first date movie. But it is really, really beautifully shot. There are many scenes which particularly stand out in my mind: the most notable being the opening scene of volleyball, coupled with a later scene where Saverio tries to recreate the first scene in his room. I don't really want to go into any more detail for fear of spoiling any of the film.

Either way, if you appreciate highly stylised movies with a bleakly humorous outlook, I reckon you'll enjoy the film. It's not for everybody though. For me it was one of the best films I saw in 2006.
- - icarusfall from Tooting
  - Posted 08 May 2007 17:03
Most recent members' review of The Family Friend
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21 out of 23 people found this review helpful

Well worth renting...

How many films have you seen recently that centre around the story of an old, misanthropic letch? Go on – how many? That’s what I thought. With a lot of modern cimena being saturated by the same generic action/soul-destroying romantic comedies/shock gore fests and so on, it’s refreshing to see something a bit different: in this case the story of Geremia Di Geremei, an aging loan shark who lives with his chronically obese mother in a flat that would make Aggie and Kim despair and hang up those famous marigolds forever.

Quite the stereotypical rich but miserly old man, Geremia has a massive bank balance but still can’t quite bring himself to fix those leaking holes in the ceiling that most of us (courtesy of some hellish landlord) have had to deal with at some point in our checkered rental history. So what makes Geremia different from any other bitter old codger out there? In his case it’s all in the shoddy presentation. He wants other people to think that he is their friend, who they can rely on to help them in times of need – hence the title of the film. Of course he just wants their money, but the fact is that he desires to be seen as something else entirely. He’s just not too good at it – what with all the threatening of families, burying nuns in sand (you’ll see) and the like, you just can’t warm to him though he does steal the screen despite these numerous failings.

With a strange and engaging cast that covers cowboys, volleyball players, Romanian immigrants and more, the film does have more than a touch of the surreal about it: slightly reminiscent of David Lynch’s mind-boggling material. To say too much more might ruin the shocking nature of the film, so lets just throw into the mix the fact that he falls prey to two of man’s most common weaknesses – love and desire.

These come in the form of the beautiful Rosalba, who is a sort of beauty to Geremia’s beast (and a good 40-odd years younger). In addition to being quite unlike anything else out at the moment, The Family Friend is full of stunning cinematography and is presented in an imaginative and compelling way. Well worth renting: you can guarantee to be entertained and unlike some of the poor characters, at least you can leave Geremia's company after a mere two hours.
- - Yasmin from Leeds
  - Posted 16 Jun 2007 21:06
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