Robert de Niro’s first Italian film in more than 30 years after Novecento, sees the American actor from Italian origin go back to his roots and try speaking in Italian.
The new Manuale d’Amore film is the third in the series from Giovanni Veronesi and has the ambitious target of being more popular than the first two, which achieved over 14 million and 19 million euros at the Italian box office.
De Niro is a key draw card for the latest film, as are Italian actors such as Monica Bellucci and Laura Chiatti.
The plot follows three love stories at different stages of people’s lives, with De Niro’s piece with Bellucci representing the rediscovery of love in the twilight era of a man’s life.
Manuale d’Amore 3 screens from February 25 and while we expect plenty of people to go and see it, our Italian colleagues at Cineblog suggest that De Niro’s Italian might not cut it.
After criticising Tilda Swinton in Io sono l’Amore for her “russian” accented Italian, there has been some snobbery regarding De Niro’s Americanised Italian.
But really the problem is not his Italian, more that he is being used for a film whose blatant purpose is to make money and seeing the trailer, the world of Italian cinema may well feel affronted.