"Is C’è Ancora Domani the Must-See Italian Film of the Year!"

This is a brilliant directorial debut of Italian actress, Paola Cortellesi; sharp, elegant and passionate, she tells a story of the past with great love and great joy. Set in Rome just after the second war, the Americans are patrolling the roads giving chocolate to the locals. Some people have become richer with the black market, others more honest are struggling to maintain their families, like Dea, who is a devoted mother and wife. She lives in a basement with her three children and husband. She works all day at home and beyond, repairing brass and umbrellas for local shops, and acting as a sort of nurse, doing intramucosal injections, in exchange for a little money which she hands over to her husband at the end of the day, while keeping some back to buy a wedding dress for her daughter. The days may be hard for Dea, but not as hard as the evening when her husband, an ex-soldier suffering for post-traumatic stress, regularly beats her up. Dea quietly accepts the violence with a smile.

After the first ten minutes, this movie with its bitter-sweet tone, captures the attention even of the most sleepy spectator. The well-plaited drama makes each character a vivid tassel in the local community. It is a nostalgic look into the past, with solidarity among women, social life in the courtyards, kids playing freely, and men meeting in the local bar. It is a warm look into the working class, and a critical one into the wealthy. The cast is starry, made of faces, personality, action and in perfect balance. Shot in a magnificent black and white, it is also a movie of great style, an homage to the Italian post-war cinema, imbued with a renewal of style, in the choreography of the violence sequences. Life is captured between reality and fiction. An extraordinary consistence form balance, while showing social signs that shapes the national identity and the history of the women rights. The narration is utterly original, going from a social realism observation of the daily life of the community, moving into the reality of the working class family, the abusive husband and becoming about the condition of the women at that time, no matter which social class, the woman had to be ‘quiet’, and society is led by man.

The script remains unpredictable from the first moment to the end. It takes fascinating turns, hinting at a romantic direction, then a dramatic one, (where the audience thinks that Dea could kill herself or she will be kill).  Its tone moves from dark to comic and then dark again, reminiscent of the tradition of great Italian directors of the “commedia all’italiana” (the Italian comedy), such as Mario Monicelli. The bitter smile that accompanies all her movie, the irony with which Cortellesi outlines the losing characters, are identified this movie.  Nevertheless, this is the first true Italian ‘comedy with meaning’ that we have seen for long time. The main ability at the end of the story is where Paola Cortellesi presents the world as an “open system”. There’s Still Tomorrow screens in the UK on 23 March.