Family Diary

Zurlini's powerful masterpiece begins in the defeated Italy of 1945 with a phone call to a struggling journalist telling him his younger brother has died; from there, the film flashes back to tell the story of the complex and changing relationship between the siblings, raised in separate households and reunited in the 1930s only to recognize that they have become two very different people. The turbulence of the times takes a back seat here to intimate drama and to cinematography that is sometimes dramatic, sometimes understated, but always autumnal, recalling the modern Italian paintings of de Chirico, Morandi and Ottone Rosai. This quite guilt- and grief-stricken film also features one of Marcello Mastroianni's most moving performances.