Mia madre

2015 Directed by Nanni Moretti

Margherita, a director in the middle of an existential crisis, has to deal with the inevitable and still unacceptable loss of her mother.

Margherita Buy Nanni Moretti John Turturro Pietro Ragusa Antonio Zavatteri Gianluca Gobbi Giulia Lazzarini Beatrice Mancini Stefano Abbati Enrico Ianniello Anna Bellato Davide Iacopini Camilla Semino Favro Toni Laudadio

Alternative Titles

Η Μητέρα Μου, My Mother, Mia Madre_ My Mother, Mia Madre

drama

106 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by russman ★★★½

She's gonna need more newspaper than that
Review by davidehrlich ★★★½

maybe my favorite Moretti since THE SON'S ROOM? it's not just the work / life balance that this film gets so right, but also — and more crucially — how you can never master your own life to the point where a personal hardship can't make you feel like an utter amateur. and when you feel like an amateur to begin with... well, this one hit home.
and John Turturro is very silly.
Review by Jonathan White ★★★½ 3

TIFF 2015 - Film # 11
Reason for pick - director of We Have a Pope, The Sons Room
There was something that Italian director Nanni Moretti captured that resonated with me. His semi-autobiographical film deals with a director who is shooting a film while her mother is dying.
Both my parents passed away decades ago, and for those of you who have already gone through this experience, this cycle of life, will probably agree that the experience is somewhat surreal. The surreal quality acts as an insulator that keeps grief and sadness at bay. For me, it manifested in a 'waking dream' like state where you perform your everyday functions, but you keep thinking thoughts of what you have…
Review by Gabriele Capolino ★★★★ 3

It hurts, hurts so bad. Watching this with my mom didn't help. I wept.
Moretti: you killed me.
Review by feedingbrett ★★★ 2

Review In A Nutshell:
There are traces in Mia Madre that speak to me, most notably through my perspective as a nurse, seeing families in distress as the idea of their loved one’s approach to departing soon comes to actualisation. One can see the traces in Mia Madre that its protagonist’s mother is deteriorating, but she can’t seem to grasp such an outcome and appears to focus on aspects that points towards signs of improvement, thus making it harder for herself as all signs begin to point south. The film demonstrates how such a circumstance could intervene and consume a person’s life; capturing the perspective of a close relative in attempting to cope with such stress as they attempt to…
Review by Steven Sheehan ★★★½ 2

Despite being a very personal film for Moretti, effectively looking back at the filming of his last film We Have A Pope where his mother passed away, he still manages to take an objective stance, muting what could have been a sweeping emotional recollection. Although the director did use some of his mother's own clothes to dress the actress playing the sick mother, so there was some exercising of ghosts going on during the filming process.
john Turturro's egotistical thespian threatens to steal the show but Moretti uses him sparingly to lighten the mood where needed. There is nice scene in the final act that adds some humanity to his Barry Huggins character, levelling out what we had seen from…
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★½

41/100
[Originally written as part of my third dispatch from Cannes '15 for The Dissolve.]
Once considered the Italian Woody Allen, Nanni Moretti (Caro Diario, The Son’s Room) returns to Cannes this year with Mia Madre, which is either a cutting satire about the filmmaking process or an oneiric portrait of a film director’s emotional turmoil as she (Margherita Buy) tends to her dying mom (Giulia Lazzarini). I say “either” rather than “both” because Moretti, who also plays a supporting role as the director’s brother, never finds a way to integrate the two tonally—half the film is a broad comedy, the other half a sober dreamscape. The comedic half works considerably better, thanks in large part to John Turturro’s self-mocking…
Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★

Love the shooting stuff, not quite so sure about most of the family material. Very affecting at times, some Moretti worst navel gazing at others. Moretti can play it very safe for most of this century, but he is one of the few genuine European masters that get major film festival attention and when this connects it does so strongly.
In a separate note, I'd watch a documentary about Moretti and Turturro taking about the later experiences working for MIchael Bay.
Review by Tainah Negreiros ★★★★

Não sei por onde começar. Me parece às vezes imperfeito, muitas imagens não são exatamente novas. Com ele, vou do entendimento doloroso profundo à alegria pelo novo que se mostra através da presença de John Turturro. O modo como seu personagem se desenvolve e, principalmente, o modo como Marguerita olha para ele é lindíssimo e muito muito novo.
Trata-se também de uma bela homenagem para a doce Ágata Apicella Moretti. Mãe do Nanni que pudemos ver em Aprile. O olhar da atriz que faz a mãe lembra o dela, que era também professora, e que também deve ter deixado grandes e belas marcas em seus alunos e alunas.
Gosto muito também do entendimento que Nanni Moretti tem do set como…
Review by Renato Silveira ★★★★

Moretti transita entre a comédia e o drama da mesma forma como sua protagonista sai do sonho para a realidade e vice-versa. Filme devastador nas emoções que busca do espectador, indo a locais muito delicados e de imagens fortes que podemos já ter visto ou que nunca gostaríamos de ver, mas que ele filma com a sensibilidade necessária. Ao mesmo tempo, é uma reflexão sobre a relação do artista com seu ofício e sua vida pessoal, e como as pessoas do lado de fora podem fazer julgamentos e ser insensíveis quando não sabem de nada ou apenas não se importam mesmo.
Review by FunnyHow ★★★½

Non capisco perchè questo film sia considerato il fallimento di Moretti, ovunque si cerchi lo si trova classificato tra le ultimissime posizioni della sua filmografia.
Ho visto e letto critiche basate su aspetti che non condizionano minimamente la buona riuscita dello stesso, ma che iniquamente ingigantiti lo stroncano e lo etichettano come un prodotto mediocre.
Io la penso diversamente, credo anzi che sia uno dei lungometraggi diretti meglio dal regista, il quale inoltre beneficia del supporto attoriale di una magnifica Margherita Buy (differentemente non condivido il David assegnato a Giulia Lazzarini, che in ogni caso rimane una buona interprete).
Attraverso un racconto intimo e umano, Moretti riesce a far cogliere un dramma così intenso (e autobiografico?) in maniera graduale, senza…
Review by Christof ★★★½

A very personal film by director Nanni Moretti, dealing with a director who struggles to make a film while her mother is severely ill, and made by Moretti soon after his own mother died while he was making a film.
The drama is very well done, but ultimately, it is John Turturro who is stealing the film as the insufferable American actor who is a pain to work with, keeps flubbing his lines, and makes up stories about working with Stanley Kubrick.
Nanni Moretti films ranked

Recent reviews

Review by mazzajuice ★★

Similarly to other Moretti films, Mia Madre is a close study of a character in crisis. The experience of this crisis is examined over the course of the film in sort of a cliche way. Felt kind of thrown together and overly disseminated.
Review by FunnyHow ★★★½

Non capisco perchè questo film sia considerato il fallimento di Moretti, ovunque si cerchi lo si trova classificato tra le ultimissime posizioni della sua filmografia.
Ho visto e letto critiche basate su aspetti che non condizionano minimamente la buona riuscita dello stesso, ma che iniquamente ingigantiti lo stroncano e lo etichettano come un prodotto mediocre.
Io la penso diversamente, credo anzi che sia uno dei lungometraggi diretti meglio dal regista, il quale inoltre beneficia del supporto attoriale di una magnifica Margherita Buy (differentemente non condivido il David assegnato a Giulia Lazzarini, che in ogni caso rimane una buona interprete).
Attraverso un racconto intimo e umano, Moretti riesce a far cogliere un dramma così intenso (e autobiografico?) in maniera graduale, senza…
Review by Francesco Signorello ★★★½

What a horrible dream! Kevin Spacey tried to kill me!
Another Nanni, another meta-cinematografic tale of grief and loss. Mainly, loss of (apparent) control.
Control over a career, a film or someone else's life.
The two sides, the dramatic and dreamlike personal crisis, combined with the more lighthearted and cheeky professional crisis, never really come together harmoniously, and that is kinda the film's biggest flaw.
Technically average but with a solid and confident tone to the writing that at times seems it shouldn't work as it does but feels just right.
Review by kulturminister ★★★★

Deeply moving. This felt real.
Margaritha Buy is amazing.
Die Mischung aus absurd witzigen und bedrückend dramtatischen Szenen ist Nanni Moretti gelungen.
Review by of_the_essence ★★★

I don't know how to put it any other way, but despite all the dialog, interactions and drama, the characters felt hollow. Losing a parent is hard even for many folks who never had a particularly good relationship with them, but this felt like all the drama of that trauma without characters; without substance. It isn't necessary to understand the pain, but without characters, there is very little story.
Review by Thomas Tolis ★★★★½

A fearless look at a story of a second coming of age. The late "narrative" Moretti at his best.
Review by KennyLee ★★★★

Una directora de cine atraviesa una crisis emocional ante el pobre estado de salud de su madre. Nanni Moretti construye una película íntima y fresca en la que explora la complejidad de las relaciones humanas. Gran actuación de Margherita Buy. Tremenda banda sonora.
Review by Huggsarefree

maaaaan... Nanni Moretti wrote comedies that made my day... And now he made a really harsh drama... I mean, he does an excellent job... But woah what a change.
Mia Madre is a film which everyone can relate to in any given scene. Those scenes in the hospital reminded me of some harsh moments last year relating to a member of my family... So much harshness but so much beauty and realism
Moretti, I love you, and you made me feel lots of things in here... Im like in shock right now...
Pretty damn good drama crying film :)
Review by Priyanka Vavilikolanu ★★★½

I need John Turturro dancing to Bollywood songs asap!
Review by Nikola Marić ★★★ 3

some Barton Fink vibes, but multidimensional..
very emotional, good pacing..
Review by Fernando Oikawa ★★★★

Fui achando que ia ver uma comédia dramática não tão pesada e no fim parecia que o Nanni Moretti tinha passado um trator em mim. É bonito como a contenção emocional do diretor, mesmo em se tratando de um assunto tão pessoal pra ele (o filme é inspirado por uma experiência de Moretti), permite transparecer todo o afeto entre mãe e filha. Um olhar cru e nada romanceado para com a morte.
Um outro comentário meio a parte: a cena final de Mia Madre me lembrou em muitos sentidos o desfecho de Apenas Mortais (2020, Liu Ze), outro filme que também lida com a doença de um familiar. Em ambos os casos, um momento que sintetiza, pelo olhar de suas protagonistas, o sentimento de vazio. Vazio de quê? Vazio, apenas.
Review by Christof ★★★½

A very personal film by director Nanni Moretti, dealing with a director who struggles to make a film while her mother is severely ill, and made by Moretti soon after his own mother died while he was making a film.
The drama is very well done, but ultimately, it is John Turturro who is stealing the film as the insufferable American actor who is a pain to work with, keeps flubbing his lines, and makes up stories about working with Stanley Kubrick.
Nanni Moretti films ranked