Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

arzewski Was impressed with the locations that the film makers chose film the externals.The school "Luchino Visconti" is THE school that the roman elite has traditionally placed their kids. The curriculum here is pretty heavy in ancient Greek and Latin texts.The town of Montalto Di Castro, shown in the beginning and the end. BTW, it is not in Tuscany, as many other commenter's claim, but still in the region of Lazio. The beach scene at the end shows a huge power plant in the background. That is a nuclear energy plant, and saying you are from Montalto Di Castro is synonymous to saying you are from Three Mile Island or Chernobyl. The folks there are on the front line should there be a radiation leak.The run-down Tuscan-looking farmhouse where Margherita's father is living his second, and already struggling, marriage. Stereotypical living quarters of washed-down intellectuals.The town of Sabbaudia, where Daniela's father travels to to attend a wedding. It was entirely built by Mussolini in the 1930's. Thus the obvious reference to its past with the group singing of a fascist song, "Inno Dei Giovani Fascisti". Text of the song is:"Popol Di Destra, Che Forte Adempie E Rompe Con Ali E Fiamme, La Giovinezza Va. Fiaccole Ardenti Sull'Are, Sulle Tombe Noi Siamo Le Speranze Della Nuova Età. Duce, Duce, Chi Non Saprà Morir? Il Giuramento Chi Mai Rinnegherà? Nuda La Spada Quando Tu La Vuoi Gagliardetti Al Vento, Tutti Verranno A Te Armi, Bandiere Degli Antichi Eroi Per L'Italia, O Duce, Fa Balenare Al Sol Va, La Vita Va Così Ci Porta E Ci Promette L'Avvenir Una Vasta Gioventù Con Romana Volontà, Combatterà. Verrà, Quel Dì Verrà, Che La Gran Madre Degli Eroi Ci Chiamerà Per Il Duce, O Patria Per Il Re Noi Griderem Gloria E Impero D'Oltremar. "And it is here that one of the most interesting storyline techniques is made: with the wedding party singing the fascist song, suddenly the storyline jumps forward to the future, showing Daniela's father in a car riding back to Rome, and commenting on the day's event, with short clips of the (past) wedding party and fascist song singing, then back to the future, then back to the past. He makes the point that he "knows these people well" and that it is his "responsibility to guide the Nation forward". So, although of the evident right-wing background, it is revealed that he is, after all, a politician with a conscience.A similar ploy of storyline and imagery injection is done with the clip of Caterina's father crying along with the crying of Gianfilippo (tentative boyfriend).The only location that doesn't mesh well is the Monte Dei Cocci in Testaccio, with a cross on top of a hill overlooking the city. The area is fenced, trespassing not allowed, and enforced. But then, it is accurate again, as only the grungy Margherita could think of going there, since the area has traditionally been known for squatters, gypsies, and an alternative music school.BTW, the choice of using the character of the Australian kid, Edward, is a good one. Being from such a far away land, he is shown to be someone that can make an unspoiled and objective point-of-view (literally, from his soap-opera revealing bedroom window view). And from reading the blogs in Italy, it seems that all the teenage girls in Italy are all in love with him.

Andres Salama This excellent Italian comedy is very similar in plot to Mean Girls (who came out in about the same time). The difference is that this is a much more politicized film. Caterina is a shy teenager from a small town in Italy, who moves to Rome with her long-suffering mother and her teacher father, when he is assigned to a new job there. In her new school, she has to choose to what clique to belong: the children of the progressive intellectuals or the children of the rich industrialists. The left or the right. What this film says is that these people are not terribly different between themselves. They both hold a degree of fame and power in Italian society, and look down upon those who don't. The outstanding performance in the movie is that of Caterina's father, the teacher Giancarlo (Sergio Castellito), a hothead angry that others have gotten all the breaks in life, who rants against the rich and privileged but who would sell his soul in a second in order to join the establishment. He is a familiar type of malcontent in real life but one who is seldom shown in the movies. There is a silly subplot of Caterina falling in love with an Australian boy (What they did that for? To reach an international market?), but all in all, this is one of the best Italian movies of the last years.

nolanjwerner I wish I could say that this was a great film because there really were a lot of things that one could like about it.As it turns out, however, it is a good, but flawed film. I will give this film a recommendation, I think it is worth seeing.The film made a number of incredible social statements. It really cuts to the quick about the nature of society, the people who can manipulate the system on both sides are in collusion with each other to keep their privilege. The people who are on the outside find themselves on the outside, looking in. They can be taken under someone's wing but they are never really more then a pet, the Jimmy Olsen to someone's Superman.The film had spectacular acting, particularly from the lead.So what then keeps the film from being great? One of the biggest problems comes from the episodic and picaresque structure of the film. It has the kind of structure that is more interesting because of its discontinuity then because of its continuity. And while it makes for a lot of interesting discussions, this could turn a lot of people off, probably even more then the subtitles.Honestly, the problem is that it begins with Caterina being pulled in many directions and it allows us to see facets of her through these different social lenses. The trouble is that we never get a baseline reading on her in the beginning before she moves to Rome. This is done very well but we never get the impression of her as anything more then a tablet that the ideologies of others are being written on, even at the end of the film when she supposedly finds herself. I won't give a spoiler as to how but the ending that someone else commented was her in her element is really just another case of this.You know what, I've changed my mind. This is a wonderful film to watch. Its a spectacular way to look at what life is really like when you are outside the powerful and privileged circles of society and you can only be influenced by the ideologies of others but you really lack any voice of your own.Watch this along with Welcome to the Dollhouse and see what life was like for the rest of us. Let this film show you the social cliques, collusion and ideology and let Solondz show you the sheer cruelty of a society that, as J. G. Ballard said, normalized psychopathy. And see it for what it really is, not some sugarcoated network television version (I think you guys know what very popular television series I'm talking about).

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre I saw 'Caterina va in Città' in Sydney, where the audience had mixed reactions to the schoolboy who speaks Italian with what's apparently meant to be a Sydneysider accent. In general, I was impressed by the ensemble acting, but I felt that the best performance was given by Margherita Buy as the heroine's mother Agata. I was disappointed that Agata has so little to do with the main plot of the film.The symbolism is just a trifle heavy-handed in this movie. Remember those Hollywood war movies from World War Two, in which the bomber crew conveniently had one member of every (white) ethnic group? (And there was usually one rich guy and one guy from the slums.) Well, director/co-scriptwriter Paolo Virzi has got that gimmick here, Italian style. When 15-year-old Caterina's parents move house from a Tuscan seaside town to Rome and enrol her in a big-city school, the student body conveniently includes the full spectrum of Italy's national archetypes. For example, Daniela is wealthy, beautiful and popular, the daughter of an official in the right-wing government. Margherita is a left-wing 'revolutionary', the daughter of a famous intellectual. Of course, the film implies that Margherita is somehow better and more 'authentic' than Daniela.Because I found the political subplots of this movie to be deeply clichéd -- especially since Italy is in no position to lecture any other nation on the subject of politics -- I was pleased that the film's political content stays firmly secondary. The main story of this movie is, rightly, Caterina's uneasy and awkward progress through adolescence and into adulthood. It's no surprise to discover that being a teenage girl in modern Italy is difficult, but surely every adolescent -- male, female, rich, poor, in any century or culture -- has found adolescence to be a difficult time of transition. Except for some of its political comments, I found this to be a very honest and intelligent film, with characters I really cared about. I'll rate 'Caterina va in Città' 8 out of 10, and I look forward to more films from Paolo Virzi. Brava, Caterina!