with an introduction by Fatme Hawarin and Martina Furlan

The search for meaning. The search for direction. The search for health. On my Vespa. The islands. The doctors. These are the three chapters of Nanni Moretti's latest film, a lighthearted but fundamentally tragic odyssey narrated by the director in the form of diary entries. Shot in a deliberately simplistic fashion to evoke an almost home-movie amateurism, the film opens with a solitary Moretti on his Vespa, exploring the deserted streets of Rome in summer. His dream, he tells us as he ruminates on houses, neigborhoods, and historic sites, is to be able to dance.

In chapter two, Moretti leaves Rome to explore the Aeolian Islands off Sicily, searching for an atmosphere that will allow him to write the screenplay of his latest film. At Lipari, Moretti finds only confusion, noise, and traffic. On another island, the director finds a society centered around and ruled by a group of children. The third chapter, "The Doctors," is the most realistic, and by far the most unnerving. Beginning with a scene from his final chemotherapy treatment, Moretti weaves the tale of his increasingly desperate meanderings through the medical purgatory of Rome, where dozens of myopic doctors prescribe a myriad of medicines and treatments for a persistent itch that only after months is diagnosed as Hodgkin's Disease.

“Caro Diario," a somewhat desultory film, is held together by Moretti's wit, his self-effacing personality, and by his singular ability to conjure both joy and sadness out of the surreal.

Text from The New York Times Movie Guide, 1994.

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