I Shouted the Right Slogans and I'm a Splendid 40 Year-Old

I watched Caro Diario last night and have fallen in love with Italy, music, sunshine and the character Nanni Moretti (who is the filmmaker and main character). And, in the middle of winter on a foggy, clammy morning, in love with scooter riding all over again. What a sweet, sublime film. The movie doesn't go anywhere in particular but it moves confidently with an attitude of "why not?" and wanders around in the moment without angst or any particular self-awareness.

There's a scene in the first section, In Vespa, in which he is riding a beachside road. It's a scooter-speed scene, not fast and not slow, in which he is exploring. I don't know the piano song playing but it's so perfect for the mood that I almost cried at the loveliness of it.

I grinned through parts of this film even though it's not a comedy and not really funny but so good humoured and openly good natured. Even the scenes in which a criticism is made, it's still done gently and with kindness (including the scene in which the movie critic is crying over his mistakes).

Nanni Moretti lives in his own world in this film but it's an interesting world full of sound, shapes, color--and, although this is my own sensual, scooter-rider presumption, smells. He meanders through it discovering simple wonders, creating his own narrative and dancing to his own internal soundtrack. When I had the luxury of time to do this on foot I'd call it be-bopping along. Now that my time is mostly always spoken for and even on my scooter my travel is, by necessity, point A to point B, I don't have much opportunity to wander and wonder so I'm utterly delighted to have found a film to perfectly remind me of it.