The Salt of LifeMovies like The Salt of Life
- Key Features:
- Midlife crisis, Aging, Retirement, Social commentary, Italian cinema, Satire, Existentialism, Family dynamics, Gender identity, Self-discovery, Loneliness
- Tone:
- humorous, cynical, satirical
- Target Audience:
- Foreign film enthusiasts, Mature audiences, Comedy-drama fans, Those interested in social commentary
- Emotional Arc:
- Resignation → Yearning
The Salt of Life

Gianni is sixty. He is retired but has not become lazy for all that. In fact he is a helpful fellow who gives a hand to all those who need one: shopping for his wife, walking the pretty neighbor's dog, and so on. Everybody likes Gianni, but is it for the right reasons? Doesn't his wife profit by the situation (she still works so it is only logical that Gianni do all the chores)? Isn't he subject to the excruciating whims of his rich mother?... Sure, everybody LIKES Gianni, but who LOVES him? Agreed, being kind to them, he is the ladies pet, but he does not attract them anymore. That is why, when his macho lawyer friend Alfonso blames him for not having young mistresses "like every other senior Italian male", Gianni, who is beginning to ask himself questions about what it is like to become old, starts chasing dames.
The Salt of Life
Three Italian retirees embark on a journey to find a new country to live in.

In Italy, three men fall in love with three women. First a young engaged lawyer has a fling, then the middle-aged married man has a fling, then a retired man falls in love with his friend's daughter.

Riko is an honest and hardworking man who can count on a group of real friends and a loving wife. Things change after he loses his job and experiences a midlife crisis.

Giulio suddenly finds himself having to change his life when his wife, after discovering his betrayal, asks for a separation and, suddenly, the reality around him is no longer the same. Forty years old and father of two children, Giulio is forced by circumstances to say goodbye to family and economic well-being and to study new solutions in order to stay afloat and not drown in a new poverty made of double rents and double bills to pay, solitary lunches in fourth-rate restaurants, children's wishes not to be ignored and creditors to hide from.

In an Italian seaside town, young Titta gets into trouble with his friends and watches various local eccentrics as they engage in often absurd behavior. Frequently clashing with his stern father and defended by his doting mother, Titta witnesses the actions of a wide range of characters, from his extended family to Fascist loyalists to sensual women, with certain moments shifting into fantastical scenarios.

Back from the hospital where he has been treated after a heart attack, Lorenzo is on his way upstairs to his top-floor apartment in Naples when he meets Michela. The charming young woman, who has just moved to the facing apartment, has forgotten her keys and finds herself locked out. Cynical and grumpy, the retired lawyer who has been living estranged from the rest of the world, should normally leave her to her fate but he mellows under her spontaneous charm. He helps her, becomes friends not only with her but with her husband Fabio and their two children. For once, the self-declared misanthropist seems to be experiencing the long forgotten feeling of empathy.

An aimless college graduate jumping from one job interview to another — killing time in between with his wisecracking and deadbeat room-mate — falls in love with an actress.

Gilberto, 50enne, si fa coinvolgere in una cosiddetta speed-date, una gara in cui i protagonisti devono trovare un partner in 3 minuti. Arrestato, deve confessare tutto in presenza della moglie che lo sbatte fuori di casa. Rifugiatosi da amici scopre che il suo migliore amico è amante della moglie e comincia a tentare di avviare nuove relazioni che falliscono tutte.

Gianni is a middle-aged man living in Rome with his imposing and demanding elderly mother. His only outlet from her and the increasing debt into which they are sinking, are the increasingly frequent quiet sessions at the local tavern. As an Oriental saying goes, 'Moments of crisis are moments of opportunities'. These appear during the celebration of the holiday of Ferragosto on 15 August. That's when everybody leaves town to have fun. Opportunity knocks on Gianni's door in the most unexpected way.

A common day in the actual Italy, narrated by the different stories of seven different people, it's the starting point for an overview to the 21st century's italian society, among corrupt politicians, unfaithful husbands, hardcore soccer fans and dishonest businessmen.

Gianni is a taxi driver dissatisfied with his life. One day by chance he gets the opportunity to take possession of the villa and life of a billionaire on holiday.

Leo Bernardi is a successful and acclaimed Italian director. He’s approaching the end of his career but he cannot accept his slow decline. He has just finished shooting his last movie and he’s deeply sad. The movie is inspired by the novel about Casanova written by Arthur Schnitzler, a character so similar to the director, even more than he could imagine. Schnitzler’s Casanova is aged, glory days are over: he lost his charm and his attraction to women, he’s broke and no more eager to travel through Europe. After a long exile, he just wants to go back to Venice, his homeland. While traveling home Casanova meets a girl, Marcolina. She reawakens his desire, lost for years. So, he tries to seduce her but that leads him to a tragic understanding: he’s an old man now. It’s not by chance that Leo Bernardi decided to tell this story right now, in a pivotal moment of his life and career. The destiny of both Casanova and his director leads them to a final confrontation.

A man wakes up one morning with an annoying ringing sound in his ears. A note on the fridge says: "Your friend Luigi has died. P.S. I took the car". The problem is that he does not even remember who this guy Luigi is. This is just the beginning of a tragicomic day during which he will be plunged into the folly of the world. One of those days that changes your life forever.

A policeman who spies on the lives of others, an important banker married to a housewife who poses as a noblewoman. A precarious young masseuse and an electrician madly in love. Very different lives that end up intertwining. But also extremely complicated and troubled lives ... Even if, after all, life is a wonderful thing ...

Antonio goes to Rome to represent his fellow peasants, to request a highway that will be built in their region. But the guy is mastered by 'la dolce vita' and wastes the money entrusted to him for his mission. When Peppino is sent to to find out what happened, he lets himself be trapped by the gentle grip of 'la dolce vita'

Antonio is a 30 year old family man, whose life finds an unexpected twist when he's suddenly dumped by his husband, whom he depends both psychologically and economically: he needs to find a new place to stay, a job and a new purpose in life. Antonio finds a room in an apartment owned by Denis and starts to work in a bakery owned by Luca, while attending pastry school. Through this process he discovers that it was wrong of him to give up his independence for the sake of his relationship in the past.

Fedele and Vittorio are two brothers who married the daughters of a rich entrepreneur, Siniscalco. But while Fedele is an irreproachable husband, Vittorio cheats on his wife and accumulates gambling debts, until one day his car is found at the bottom of a lake and he is left for dead. Six years later, however, the extraordinary news arrives: Vittorio is alive and is in Cuba, where he lives by scamming tourists. Fedele then leaves with the intention of bringing him back to his family.

Salvo and Valentino are two happy Sicilian friends, who do not want to work, because they know that if they find a permanent job, their girlfriends will ask them to marry them.

Filippo is a gigolo making up in looks what he lacks in wits. When an accident robs him of his beauty, demand plummets. Desperate, Filippo asks for help from retired gigolo and self-professed life guru Max.

Claudia and Flavio were once passionately in love, but all of that is over. Now, in their fifties, they must venture anew into the world of love and dating once more but for Claudia confronting the end and accepting a new beginning isn’t so easy. Claudia is unwilling to let go and forget the life she’s built with Flavio, while Flavio, eager to move on, soon finds himself in a relationship with a much younger woman. Claudia soon reconnects with Nina, a student from her days as a professor.

Four inseparable friends try to face their midlife crisis with daytrips and pranks at the expense of their families and the people around them.

Two proud and estranged brothers, a disputed inheritance and a past that comes back. When he hears about the passing of his father - whom he has not seen in many years - Salvo returns to his native Sicily. He intends to convince his brother Lillo to sell the family farm and save his pizzeria, which is about to go bankrupt - a secret that he has kept even from his wife and children. But things will not be easy and Salvo will have to come to terms with his choices. A bittersweet comedy about family relations and how one never stops growing up, not even at fifty.

An Italian doctor starts a new life in Kenya to escape the city, but life catches up with him when an old friend offers his assistance along with his wife, who happens to be an old lover.

Serafino, a young and innocent shepherd, inherits a huge fortune. He immediately starts spending the entire sum on presents for his friends, causing the envy of his family.

Umberto Maria Durloni is a successful lawyer and a socialite who likes parties and a lavish life. He's got it all, except any ethical qualms.Only a step away from the top, his perfect world crumbles, showing him the brutal do downside to his life.

A portrait of the flaws and peculiarities of four type of girls living in different districts of Rome.

Vincenzo, a 30 years old apathetic and lazy man who still lives with his mother, has no job and no desire to improve. He meets Anna and fell in love with her but to keep the relationship alive he has to learn to accept more responsibility.

Corrupt and sleazy entrepreneur Cetto La Qualunque comes back to Italy and "jumps into politics" lest his law-abiding opponent, Giovanni De Santis, is elected as mayor.

From childhood to fatherhood, Piero learns things the hard way while growing up in a working-class neighborhood of Livorno.

Roberto, a shy law student in Rome, meets Bruno, a forty-year-old exuberant, capricious man, who takes him for a drive through the Roman and Tuscany countries in the summer. When their journey starts to blend into their daily lives though, the pair’s newfound friendship is tested.

Checco is 39 and lived his entire life with his parents. He loves his job where he does nothing the whole day, until something happens that will change his behavior and his life forever...

After thirty years in the big corporation, Ugo Fantozzi retires. Suddenly, he needs things to do in everyday life and he tries a number of activities: helping Pina shopping; babysitting grand-daughter Uga; a trip to Venice; learning golf. He then fakes documents to get a new job, but in the end he becomes a hypochondriac and doesn't even take a long-awaited chance with Miss Silvani.

A tribute to Naples, this film presents six episodes: a clown exploited by a gangster, a pizza seller losing her husband’s ring, a child's funeral, a gambler beaten by a kid, a prostitute's unusual wedding, and a "wisdom seller" offering advice.

A queue at the ATM machine, a displaced family after a seismic shock that has half-washed their home, a tour within an art gallery, moments of everyday life that become the cues for the emergence of comic, farce, paradoxical situations – trademarks of one of the most successful Italian comic groups.

Five young men dream of success as they drift lazily through life in a small Italian village. Fausto, the group's leader, is a womanizer; Riccardo craves fame; Alberto is a hopeless dreamer; Moraldo fantasizes about life in the city; and Leopoldo is an aspiring playwright. As Fausto chases a string of women, to the horror of his pregnant wife, the other four blunder their way from one uneventful experience to the next.

Four married couples find out their marriage is invalid because it was officiated by a fraudulent priest and have to decide what to do next.

A middle-aged man dissatisfied with the present state of things finds himself in a parallel universe where all technology is stuck in the 1990s.

We are all equal before the law, but some are just more equal than others. Antonio is a trainee lawyer who dreams of joining his mentor’s prestigious firm. But Salvatore “Toti” Bellastella, the Prince of the Forum, is also an exploitative tyrant! He asks Antonio any kind of task: from being his assistant to driver, from paralegal to personal cook! When Antonio brilliantly passes the bar, he gets the offer of becoming a partner in the firm, but there is still one condition: he must marry Isabel, Toti’s lover, an Argentinian girl who needs the Italian citizenship. It looks like just another little “favor” for his boss. So Antonio accepts… and he’s really in a sea of trouble.

Michele, Goffredo, Mirko and Vito are four friends who have participated in the battles of the student in Sixties. Now in the Seventies, the four friends don't know what to do, though young and with so many possibilities to find a job in life. Intellectuals marginalized and misunderstood, the four friends find themselves when they can in a restaurant to discuss their outlandish theories. A girl named Olga disrupts their life, but Michele is her favorite, although he does not know what to do with the girl.

Two aging men bond over their respective heartbreaks, but it may not be over yet...

An aimless young troublemaker, Alessandro, squanders his days gambling and getting into fights, and he often spends his nights in jail. With few prospects, he begrudgingly accepts a job as a companion to Giorgio, an elderly poet suffering from Alzheimer’s. On their daily walks, the two banter and become friends, and Alessandro quickly learns more about this forgotten poet as the old man’s memory drifts. After learning a secret from Giorgio’s past, Alessandro and his friends work to uncover the mystery of this tale, an unexpected history lesson and a touching coming-of-age adventure.

Episodic journey of journalist Marcello who struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend, all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer.

During the bombing of Naples in World War II, a cynical businessman helps a naive prostitute, who spends the next two decades desperate to have him reciprocate her feelings.

Fantozzi is now retired but continues to go to the office where it is held up as a fine example of employees intending to do career.

Andrea is a handsome and cocky 38-year old man with a successful business career. Shallow, womanizing and a confirmed bachelor, his life seems to be just perfect... until the day he comes home and finds there Layla, a teenage girl who claims to be his daughter. Alongside Layla is her grandfather Enzo, a former rockstar and the father of Andrea's first fleeting and forgotten conquest. And they've come to stay!

After receiving a large sum of money on his bank account by mistake, a small-town thirtysomething dissatisfied with his life sees the opportunity of turning back the clock to when things were good, reliving the carefree life of an university student in a big city. Here, he falls in love with a girl and gets her pregnant. There's just one problem: he already has a wife and a daughter back home!

An absurd law prevents John, an unrecognized child at birth, from knowing the identity of his biological parents before his 100th birthday. To succeed in attracting public opinion, his only hope is to obtain the complicity of Gustavo, the only unrecognized-at-birth centenarian alive. The only one who would have the right to avail himself of this legislation but seems to have no interest in doing so. The Most Beautiful Century of My Life tells of the meeting between a centenarian projected into the future and a young man anchored in the past and of their unexpected friendship.

When Antonia's husband Massimo is killed in a car accident, she accidentally discovers that he has been having a same-sex affair with a produce wholesaler named Michele.

Three Italians travel to their hometown to vote for elections: Pasquale is a Southern immigrant living in Munich who's genuinely happy to come back to Italy, even if just for a few days, but the country he dreams of is far from reality; Furio travels to Rome with his family, but his niggling attitude threatens to push his wife Magda over the edge; young Mimmo is also going to Rome, but the trip is repeatedly interrupted by worries about his grandma's health.

A bureaucratic snafu sends Marco Tullio Sperelli, a portly, middle-aged northern Italian, to teach third grade in a poor town outside Naples

A middle-aged man’s relationship with a young model is questioned by his daughter, who’s dating an older man herself.

Giovanna, Carla, Francesca, Chiara. What these women have in common so different from each other? Which will never be the not insignificant detail that makes their lives secretly imperfect? And what mystery female is so intimate and private, that more private you can not? Whatever it is, all they want. A food designer, her first love and one sciampista for dogs are the stars of this comedy merrily shameless telling women what no one had ever dared to tell.

The lawyer Pio has the personality of an earthworm. The priest assigns him, as a driver, the rather prejudiced Amedeo, rough manners and unlikely clothes. The second will wake up the first.

When Debora's ex-husband, a popular neomelodic singer, loses his life in a stage dive, she worries that her 11-year-old son Ciro may be showing symptoms of depression. Taken to a child psychologist, shy Tommaso, Ciro eventually confesses to him that it's not his father's death that has got him down, it's love for his classmate, the cute Ludovica. The two make a deal: Tommaso will help Ciro to win the affections of Ludovica, while Ciro will give Tommaso a hand at having a chance with his mother.

Old and forgotten, comedian Aldo is brought by his sons into a nursing home called Reuma Park where he finds his old friends and partners Giovanni and Giacomo.

From married couples to platonic roommates to testy rivals with romantic chemistry, the never-ending battle of the sexes gets personal.

In paradise, a group gathers to discuss why people still act selfishly, even though Jesus sacrificed himself for them 2,000 years ago. As a result, a new Messiah is sent to Earth to address the issue.

An episodic satire of the political and social status of Italy in the seventies, through the shows of one day of a television channel.

This time the "amici" (friends) are just four: Necchi, Meandri, Mascetti and Sassaroli. Nevertheless they are older they still love to spend their time mainly organizing irresistible jokes to everyone in every kind of situation. Mascetti is hospitalized in a geriatric clinic. Of course the place become immediately the main stage for all their jokes. After some jokes they decided to place an ultimate incredible and farcical joke to the clinic guests.

Having just moved back in with his working-class parents, twentysomething on-and-off philosophy undergrad Walter navigates turn-of-the-millennium Turin and Gen-X ennui.

A man is forced to completely change his habits when he decides to move from the country to the city.

A group of middle-aged time-share investors get ripped off and their desire for revenge is well-timed for them to be recruited by a bank clerk who feels the same about his employers.

Marco is married to a gorgeous woman, has a child and a great job. Everything seems perfect, at least until his wife of 25 years announces that she has another man and wants a separation. Marco is forced to leave home.

Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.

A successful businessman whose destiny leads him to a secluded Swiss chalet where his life is put on trial by a group of retired law professionals. The men assemble to analyze Sordi's rise to power and his increasingly immoral behavior as he attained success, and the warped perceptions of right and wrong he has adopted to remain successful.

After a fateful encounter in the summer of 1966, the lifepaths of two brothers from a middle-class Roman family diverge, intersecting with some of the most significant events of postwar Italian history in the following decades.

Single and middle-aged, beautiful Irene (Margarita Buy) is wholly devoted to her job as an inspector of luxury hotels. Constantly on the road, she indulges in expensive pleasures at impeccable resorts, but always incognito and alone, soon escaping to the next exotic destination with her checklist and laptop in tow. When her best friend and ex, Andrea (Stefano Accorsi), who has always been a source of emotional support, suddenly becomes unavailable, Irene is thrown into a deep existential crisis. "Luxury is a form of deceit," she is told by a fellow traveller in the fog of a steam room, and thus begins Irene's quest to bring more meaning into her life.

Greek Sea, World War II. An Italian ship leaves a handful of soldiers in a little island; their mission is to spot enemy ships and to hold the island in case of attack. The village of the island seems abandoned and there isn't a single enemy in sight, so the soldiers begin to relax a little. Things change when their ship is hit and destroyed by the enemy, and the soldiers find themselves abandoned there.

A meek middle-aged man takes on every conceivable temporary job in order to feel useful and keep his dignity—until something shakes his inexhaustible optimism.

Armando is the daddy, Cristiano is the adult son. Each of them lives his life in a different way respect the other: Armando is an old play-boy and often he "buys" his women with his money; Cristiano is a shy guy who lives in a community with other guys like him. The movie proceeds showing us, ironically, the differences, the different ways to think, to act, to treat the women between father and son.

Indifferent to the notion of inheriting his father's estate, a restless, aging New Yorker passes time with his friends in games of mock sincerity, irreverence, and recreational cruelty towards those around them.

A retired professor of American origin lives a solitary life in a luxurious palazzo in Rome. He is confronted by a vulgar Italian marchesa and her lover, her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend, and forced to rent to them an apartment on the upper floor of his palazzo. From this point on his quiet routine is turned into chaos by his tenants' machinations, and everybody's life takes an unexpected but inevitable turn.

Pietro Marchetti, a mature Roman taxi driver, has countless and interesting meetings while he is on duty with his car "Zara 87".

Four short films by four different directors dealing with the principles of modern life.

It depicts the lives of several groups of characters interacting at the beach of Forte dei Marmi during the mid-1980s.

To avoid jail, a tax-dodging businessman is sentenced to a year of community service in a homeless shelter.

A long love story, seen through the memories of one young couple. The journey through the years of two individuals, united, divided, happy, unhappy, deeply in love, or in love with others, in a single stream of emotions and shades of feeling. Over the course of the film, he learns that love can indeed last, while she learns to live with nostalgia.

Orlando is in his 40s and is "loser" until the 2012 earthquake makes him change his life.

Andrea, a forty-year old engineer, suddenly becomes unemployed while his wife France gets a promotion. He is very down hearted and since he does not want to be a burden to his family he takes the place of the house maid.

An aging American millionairess journeys to Rome each year with her chauffeur George to play the card game scopone with destitute Peppino and his wife Antonia.

In many small episodes, various characters represent the typical vices and comedy of Italian society in early 2000.

25-year-old philosophy major Marta faces the ugly truth for many young Italians — a complete lack of career opportunities. While babysitting for single mother Sonia, she starts to work as a telemarketer, experiencing first-hand the fanatical and exploitative rat-race culture pushed on employees while quickly rising through the ranks of the company. Around her revolve people like delusional supervisor Daniela, her womanizing boss Claudio, fragile coworker Lucio "2", and well-meaning but inconsistent union rep Giorgio.

This coarse bedroom farce takes place at the St. Moritz ski resort over a Christmas vacation. Among the couples whose lives intersect are a widowed artist honeymooning with his second wife, a gay man traveling with his son and his lover (and hiding each from the other), a snobbish couple from Milan who have been forced to share a suite with a pair of crass Romans, etc.

Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.

Longtime Italian cinema star Stefania Sandrelli (The First Beautiful Thing) is Alba, the mother of two very different adult sons. While Giorgio is a playboy who constantly cheats on his wife, Leonardo (Luca Argentero, Eat Pray Love) is always unlucky in love. When Leonardo finally meets the woman of his dreams, Sara, he brings her home to meet the family, but it appears this is not the first time that Sara has met Giorgio. Directed by Luca Lucini and stars Luca Argentero, Alessandro Gassman and Stefania Sandrelli.

Retired Englishman George Hall's hypochondria worsens and takes its toll on his family.

A committed environmentalist whose hyperfixation with everything that's wrong with the world is taking a toll on his marriage tries a pill that reduces human brain capacity from the usual 20% to a mere 2%. Which puts him on a par with your typical man on the street.

When a love story ends and ones does not know how to say goodbye, here comes the classic excuse: "I'm leaving you because I love you too much." With this exact sentence Daniela says goodbye to Mariano and disappears from his life. His friends try to help him, but Daniela is always in his thoughts. Finally seems to portend the nail that will drive the nail in the guise of a beautiful Brazilian. But winning does not show up at all easy.

A ne'er-do-well who's married to a millionnaire realizes his financial trouble might be solved if his wife was dead - and sets out a plot to achieve just that. A remake of Dino Risi's "il vedovo".

In Pietrasanta all are excited for the annual party of summer end. Here we find four characters: Merigo, a naive guy passionate of bike; Pierre, son of the mayor; Simone, a pestiferous kid; Mario, lifeguard of "Bagnomaria".

Comedy about the flawed Italian healthcare system of the time and a doctor's expeirence with it.

Gloria is a 58-year-old divorcée. Her children have all left home but she has no desire to spend her days and nights alone. Determined to defy old age and loneliness, she rushes headlong into a whirl of singles’ parties on the hunt for instant gratification – which only leads to repeated disappointment and enduring emptiness. But when Gloria meets Rodolfo, an ex-naval officer seven years her senior, she begins to imagine the possibility of a permanent relationship.

A Milanese businessman is beside himself when his son tells him he's going to marry the daughter of a pizza maker from Naples.

Francesco and Claudia are best friends. They're inseparable and tell each other everything, until another man enters the picture stealing Claudia's heart. Francesco then realizes that friendship between man and woman is a complicated thing.

Set in Genoa, the film concerns the financial struggles and emotional strain that occur after Michele loses his job. He and his wife Elsa are forced to give up their affluent lifestyle and cope with the tensions of moving into a smaller home, finding new work, and making sacrifices.

On the Adriatic Riviera the destinies of a variety of characters cross. A piano player is the lover of a rich woman who wants him to become a killer, a call girl is looking for her true love, two workers want to marry two old billionaires.

Middle-aged family man Arnaldo is kicked out by his wife because of a misunderstanding. Instead of despairing, Arnaldo takes advantage of the situation to turn around his unsatisfying adult life by going to live in a flat shared with four university students.

Some political candidates are determined to win the electors' preference during an election campaign in Italy.

