Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

House of Smiles (1990)

Director: Marco Ferreri

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Ferreri's film concerns old age (the old provocateur is in his sixties himself), and centres around the relationship between two 'inmates' of a home for the elderly: lively, eccentric Adelina (Thulin) and dapper charmer Andrea (Ruspoli). All Ferreri's films have elements of surreal black farce, and here the farce resides in the outrageous institutional repressiveness of the home and its staff. Ferreri turns everything on its head. Transgressors (and those unable any longer to perform basic functions for themselves) are threatened with dispatch to 'Africa', an outbuilding staffed by immigrant Maghrebi workers. It is there that the celebrant couple go for privacy and sex (in the Watermelon caravan belonging to their African friends). A film of sharp insight, filled with humanity and mischievous subversiveness.

Author: WH 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Marco Ferreri

Producer: Giovanna Romagnoli, Augusto Caminito

Cast: Ingrid Thulin, Dado Ruspoli, Vincenzo Cannavale, Maria Mercader, Elisabeth Kaza full cast

Duration: 100 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.