Quiet Chaos is a film adaptation of the award winning (Italy’s highest literary award, The Strega Prize) book by Sandro Veronesi. Nanni Moretti plays Pietro, a man with a high demand job, who has just lost his wife in an accident and is now left to solely care for his daughter, played by Blu Yoshimi. Pietro drops his daughter at school for the first time after his wifes death and overcome by sorrow, he promises to wait for her outside of the school until she finishes for the day. In this time, Pietro watches the world surrounding the school, and finds that he desires to return there the next day, and the day after. Eventually Pietro establishes routines and relationships in this little pocket of the world that he inhabits in the park outside of his daughter’s school. Quiet Chaos brings to the fore, an element of bereavement that some people might tend to oversee. That is, the hesitation to communicate complex emotions in a manner that is common and predictable. Nanni Moretti reveals this human element of bereavement through his visibly indifferent and calm demeanour, which does not conform to the cliché of the psychological “grief cycle” of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. It almost seems as though there is an underlying motive behind Quiet Chaos to remind us that grief is never simplistic, and it is always experienced differently by everyone. This is symbolised through Pietro’s created micro-universe in the park that is mirrored on his life before his wife’s death. In this world he develops routines that emulate those of his life in a much smaller, calmer and controllable space. An astonishing soundtrack composed by Paulo Buonvino adds to the solemn atmosphere of this film, including original compositions by Buonvino himself and also tracks by the likes of Radiohead and Stars. The importance of the soundtrack is heightened during an aggressive sex scene in which the music is suspended temporarily to increase the feeling of violence and also adding to the intensity of a sense of voyeurism felt by the audience Superbly well made and acted, Quiet Chaos is a beautiful journey through grief and the individualised ways in which humans deal with loss. Starring Nanni Moretti (Padre Padrone, To Each His Cinema, The Son’s Room, Dear Diary), Valeria Golino (Rain Man, Frida, Respiro, Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her), Isabella Ferrari and Alessandro Gassman (Steam: The Turkish Bath, A Month by the Lake).
Directed by Antonello Grimaldi
Screenwriter: Nanni Moretti, Laura Paolucci and Francesco Piccolo
Producer: Domenico Procacci (Gomorrah, Respiro, The Embalmer, The Last Kiss) and Alessandro Pesci.
Composer: Paolo Buonvino (The Last Kiss, Remember Me My Love)
Country of Origin: Italy
Running Time: 112 min
Rating: MA
Release Date: May 21
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