The Time It Takes
Italy
•
1h 53m
Directed by Francesca Comencini • Drama • With Romana Maggiora Vergano, Fabrizio Gifuni • 2025 • 113 minutes
In this deeply personal film about her relationship with her father, legendary filmmaker Luigi Comencini, Francesca Comencini’s virtuosic work of cinematic autobiography paints a richly emotional picture of their changing bond. Young Francesca (first-time actress Anna Mangiocavallo) and her father Luigi (an astonishing Fabrizio Gifuni) live together during the Years of Lead; they share a love of cinema, but their love for one another is tested both by the passage of time and by the convulsions of this turbulent period in Italian politics. A film suffused with empathy and self-reflection, THE TIME IT TAKES finds Comencini in top form, rendering the intensity and complications of the father-daughter relationship with a rare authenticity. The film earned six Donatello Award nominations, and Romana Maggiora Vergano, who plays the adult Francesca, won the Pasinetti Award for best actress at its Venice Film Festival debut. —Film at Lincoln Center
Up Next in Italy
-
Slap the Monster on Page One (Marco B...
Directed by Marco Bellocchio • Drama • With Gian Maria Volonte, Laura Betti • 1972 • 86 minutes
Days before a general election a young girl is raped and murdered. Bizanti (Gian Maria Volonté), the editor of a right-wing newspaper uses the story to help the conservative candidate his paper supports.
-
A Man on his Knees (Damiano Damiani)
Directed by Damiano Damiani • Drama • With Giuliano Gemma, Eleonora Giorgi • 1979 • 106 minutes
Mistaken as a witness to a crime, Nino (Giuliano Gemma, The Iron Prefect), learns from a friend he has been put on a Mafia hit list and is being stalked by an assassin (Michele Placido, Romanzo Crimin...
-
The Day of the Owl
Directed by Damiano Damiani • Drama • With Claudia Cardinale, Franco Nero, Lee J. Cobb • 1968 • 109 minutes
The Day of the Owl stars Franco Nero as a police chief who, while investigating the death of a construction worker, goes up against corrupt officials and a ruthless mafia boss (Lee J. Cobb...