''Marriages'' ( it, Matrimoni) is a 1998 Italian

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by

Cristina Comencini Cristina Comencini (; born 8 May 1956) is an Italian film director, screenwriter and novelist. Biography She is one of four daughters of Italian film director Luigi Comencini. She attended with her sisters the Lycée français Chateaubriand (Rome) ...

. For her performance

Cecilia Dazzi Cecilia Dazzi (born 17 October 1969) is an Italian actress, television personality and songwriter. Early life Born in Rome, she is the daughter of film producer Tommaso Dazzi. Career She made her film debut in 1987, in Ettore Scola's '' Th ...

won the

David di Donatello The David di Donatello Awards, named after Donatello's ''David'', a symbolic statue of the Italian Renaissance, are film awards given out each year by the ''Accademia del Cinema Italiano'' (The Academy of Italian Cinema). There are 26 award cat ...

for best supporting actress.Giorgio Dell'Arti, Massimo Parrini. ''Catalogo dei viventi''. Marsilio, 2009. .

Plot

Giulia is getting everything ready for the Christmas Eve party she always hosts for her family, helped by her unmarried sister Sandra. Her husband Paolo keeps out of the way, going for a game of tennis when he finishes work. It is Giulia who has to go to the railway station to collect her brother Sergio and his wife Lucia, whose relationship is on the brink. Instead of greeting them, on an impulse she jumps on a train that takes her to her birthplace of

Trani Trani () is a seaport of Apulia, in southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, by railway west-northwest of Bari. It is one of the capital cities of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. History Overview The city of ''Turenum'' appears for the fir ...

. A tense party continues without Giulia, who has bumped into Fausto, an old flame, while Paolo left on his own is being comforted by Sandra. For the New Year, everybody else comes down to Trani, where Giulia's separated parents are having a secret tryst in a hotel closed for the winter. When Fausto and Giulia sneak into an empty bedroom there, they are spotted by her mother and Giulia's virtue is preserved. While Paolo reconciles with Giulia, Sandra and Fausto discover they have a lot in common. Amid all this pairing off, Sergio and Lucia resolve to turn over a new leaf.

Cast

Diego Abatantuono Diego Abatantuono (born 20 May 1955) is an Italian cinema and theatre actor, and screenwriter, three-time winner of the Nastro d'Argento. Biography and career Abatantuono was born in Milan to a father of Apulian origin and a mother from Como. T ...

as Paolo *

Francesca Neri Francesca Neri (born 10 February 1964) is an Italian actress. Biography Neri was born in Trento, Italy. She has twice received the Silver Ribbon Award for Best Actress from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, for ''Pensavo foss ...

as Giulia *

Stefania Sandrelli Stefania Sandrelli (born 5 June 1946) is an Italian actress, famous for her many roles in the ''commedia all'Italiana'', starting from the 1960s. She was 14 years old when she starred in ''Divorce Italian Style'' as Angela, the cousin and love in ...

as Vera *

Claude Brasseur Claude Brasseur (15 June 1936 – 22 December 2020) was a French actor. Life and career Claude Brasseur was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine as Claude Pierre Espinasse, the son of actor Pierre Brasseur and actress Odette Joyeux. He was the godson of E ...

as Alessio *

Paolo Sassanelli Paolo Sassanelli (born 29 October 1958) is an Italian stage, film and television actor as well as director. Life and career Born in Bari, Sassanelli made his stage debut in his hometown in the second half of the 1980s. He then moved to Rome and ...

as Fausto *

as Sandra *

Lunetta Savino Lunetta Savino (born 2 November 1957 in Bari) is an Italian theatre and movie actress, particularly famous for starring in popular TV series. She is best known in her home country for playing Cettina, one of the leading characters on Rai Uno's p ...

as Lucia *

Emilio Solfrizzi Emilio Solfrizzi (born 5 April 1962) is an Italian actor and comedian. Life and career Born in Bari, in 1985 Solfrizzi graduated in performing arts at the Bologna University.Giorgio Dell’Arti, Massimo Parrini. ''Catalogo dei viventi''. Mar ...

as Sergio *

Claire Keim Claire Keim (born Claire Lefebvre 8 July 1975) is a French actress and singer. Biography Keim was born in Senlis, Oise to an architect father and a dentist mother. She is in a relationship with French footballer Bixente Lizarazu, and lives in Sa ...

as Catherine *

Gigio Alberti Gigio Alberti (born 19 June 1956) is an Italian actor. Background Born in Milan as Luigi Alberti, he studied at the acting school of the Piccolo Teatro, graduating in 1981. His career is mainly associated to Gabriele Salvatores, with whom he ...

Fabio De Luigi Fabio De Luigi (born 11 October 1967) is an Italian actor, voice actor, comedian, film director, television presenter, and former basketball player. Biography Great-grandson of Tonino Guerra; has a son, Dino, born in 2007, and a daughter, Lola, ...

References

External links

* 1998 films Italian romantic comedy films Films directed by Cristina Comencini 1998 romantic comedy films 1990s Italian films {{1990s-romantic-comedy-film-stub