The Manual of Love
The Manual of Love
| 18 March 2005 (USA)
The Manual of Love Trailers

Four intertwined stories on the joys and sorrows of love.

Reviews
lasttimeisaw

Saw this film during a class, it's surprise to see Carlo Verdone and Silvio Muccino again, last time I saw them together in "Il Mio Miglior Nemico" (2006), so I guess both are marquee actors in Italy (actually Carlo Verdone is a director too and the cast includes a dozen of the most famous Italian contemporary actors/actresses). Actually I heard of this series before, the "Manuela D' Amore 2" also has become a huge success in Italy (with Monica Bellucci, a current sexy symbol of Italy), and rumor says the 3rd installment will invite Robert De Niro to join a star-studded cast, which shows its ambition to conquer a more international terrain. The film has been a successful domestic box-office bomb in 2005 and also met with mainly positive feedbacks. It consists of four stories of love, from "falling in love", "the crisis", "the betrayal" to "the abandoned", four different sets of protagonists interpret their own chapter with a previous one educes a latter story and finally the fourth chapter encircles with the first one to make everything looks so perfect. It is an innocuous comedic film with predictable farce and generally it is quite enjoyable. Although each chapter seems nothing particularly outstanding (when we talk about love, I think we have already seen ALMOST everything on screen), the advantage is that with four different stories altogether and each lasts for only 30 mins, the film shrewdly changes to a new chapter as soon as the previous one shows a sign of burning out, which at least will not annoy the audience (critics are not included). The film got 10 nomination of David di Donatell Awards (Italian Oscar) and won several of them (including Best Supporting Actor and Actress, Carlo Verdone and Margherita Buy), which cruelly shows the truth that now we are in a world starving for great comedies, it is not only in Italy, but the whole earth as well.

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spidermandel

A delightful movie about the many aspects of love. The director knows comedy, doesn't talk down to his audience, and together with the screenwriter, delivers some insightful and hilarious moments. I found the movie dragged, or rather annoyed, only during one short stretch. But that was more than offset by the incredibly funny and talented Carlo Vendone as the physician in the final segment. I, and the entire full house of the audience at the St. Louis International Film Festival, was with this film every entertaining step of the way. The entire cast delivers believable performances, in a film that moves at a happy, involving pace. Laughter is contagious... see it with a group.

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rcashdan

the funniest scenes are in the second story when the couple having difficulties go to visit relatives who have a new baby. The admiration the baby receives is so exaggerated, the disgust . . . well no point in spoiling it. Most of the audience when I went were young Mexicans who were identifying with the characters in the first story but I didn't get hooked until the second one. The problems with parking guards who give fines, arrange for cars to be hauled off etc was probably funnier to the Italian audience but traveled well across the border. The "moral" of the last story was one I wish I'd learned sooner. All in all a very enjoyable evening's entertainment.

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Tim Johnson

Another one of those surprising little masterpieces that one sees accidentally; a movie that you know little about but once seen leaves you with warmth and satisfaction having been taken on a journey we all know.Diane and I loved the film and left the theater with smiles on our faces and happy satisfaction animating our post-movie conversation. Maybe this pleasantness was a result of the writer's/director's choice of vignettes that ended the movie-it was the happiest, most satisfying of the four stories that composed the film.The script was subtly formed so that the stories have a soft connection between them and the final story felt the most satisfying to me. These four faces of love are examined softly-no major drama here-just a quiet look at the most obvious faces that present to us of this feeling called love.It is easy to see why this film won 11 Italian Oscars because the acting is acting at the point where the viewer is unaware that the people are acting the story. These theme variations are so well crafted that the viewer is left feeling that he/she is an emotional voyeur in that they are present during these stages of love.Do make an effort to see the film-it is worth your time and effort to do so.

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