Caterina in the Big City (2005)

Fresh and Exciting

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

"Caterina va in città" has the quality every great Italian masterpiece has: every time you watch it, you discover a topic you hadn't noticed before and you never get tired of his funny sequences, mainly because from those scenes you draw the conclusions about what this film wanted to communicate."Caterina va in città" can count on some of the best current Italian actors: Sergio Castellitto and Margherita Buy, who play Caterina's parents, share a perfect chemistry. You can believe they are a married couple since more than ten years in this film, and you can't do anything but appreciate the aristocratic Mrs Buy finally playing a bungler, mind-absent, but loving and a bit boor Italian mummy. You can't argue about Castellitto: the things his character says are sadly true in Italy nowadays. The beginner Alice Teghil is the ideal choice for the sweet Caterina: her innocent and deep eyes speak more than a thousand word. She's the only pure character in the whole film and you feel there's still justice in this world, when, in the closing scene, we see her singing happy and free in the National Academy of Santa Cecilia's choir. There're other remarkable performances: Federica Sbrenna (Daniela Germano), Carolina Iaquaniello (Margherita Rossi Chaillet), for example, and also Claudio Amendola (Daniela's father), Flavio Bucci and Galatea Ranzi (Margherita's parents). Behind the camera there's Paolo Virzì, one of the most sharp and smart directors in Italy.I lived a situation similar to Caterina's two years ago, and, because of this heaven-sent film, I understood a lot of things and finally resolved that annoying problem. That's way I owe my happiness and my inner peace to this film. Thanks, thanks, and still thanks, Caterina.

"Caterina va in città" seems like your typical teen film. It somehow reminds me of "Thirteen", but it goes a little deeper than the average American teen film. In American teen films the parents are normally reduced to simple shadows that serve more as a background for their sons and daughters' lives - they are either of the preaching-repressive sort, or the tolerant, ever-forgiving parents, that eventually through love will help their children to the way of redemption.Not so, "Caterina va in città". In this film, not just Caterina ( Alice Teghil) but her parents as well are portrayed as three-dimensional human beings and this makes the film more interesting.Caterina and her parents move from a small Italian town to Rome. And there Caterina's life will be shaken. She goes to high school and meets new friends - many new things happen in her life. She feels uprooted from her old self, and doesn't know anymore who she really is. One can say that "Caterina va in città" is a coming of age film - it portrays her search for her place in the world - many American teen films tell the same story. But what differentiates this film from its American counterparts is the attention it gives to the parents. The father Giancarlo (Sergio Castellito) is a deeply disturbed personality. He thinks the world revolves around him and there's a conspiracy of important segments of society whose main aim is preventing him from succeeding in life. He is an egoist that treats his wife as a dumb servant and his daughter as a beautiful puppy. But no, he's not a "bad" man - in his own distorted way he loves his wife and his daughter. Sergio Castellito gives us a stellar interpretation as the problematic father, underlining his pathetic and quixotic traits. Agata (Margherita Buy), is his ever-enduring wife - she has a deeper layer than it may appear at first glance. And there's Caterina living with them, seeing them with her innocent eyes. The other characters in the film are what one could call walking clichés. Nothing that has not been shown before in American teen movies. Politics shows its colors in the film, but in a very superficial way. It's not really essential for the film's story - left and right could have been easily substituted for rival football teams.The ending (difficult to imagine in American films) will come as a surprise and have a liberating effect on the viewer. All in all, "Caterina va in città" is a good teen film thats stands a bit above the usual film of the genre.

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!

I am a student in Australia, in year 9, 15 years old, studying Italian at LaSalle Catholic College Bankstown. I viewed this film as an excursion 3 days ago, and I loved it. I feel for Caterina because I guess I am a little naive in a way. She didn't realize that people were using her, she didn't realize that Margherita liked her in a different, more romantic way, she didn't know about a lot that went on in Rome. It was a very nice, dramatic and funny storyline, and i suppose it appeals to a large audience. I rated it 9/10. I took off 1 mark because I feel not enough was shown of Edward, the guy she loved, the guy from "down under", the guy who most Australians can identify with. He played a prime role in my eyes because he brought her life back on track when she had run away. A little more could have also been shown of Fabietto and Agata's relationship. This film was an excellent representation of the comparison between the posh side of Italy and the grateful and appreciative side of Italy