I Love Italian Everything

Romeo sits before the old fortune teller he’s gone to see on a narrow, ancient street in Italy. He’s the former keyboard player of a kind of famous band that had one hit and his wife left him for another guy in the band so he is ready for someone to tell him that his life’s not over.

“Don’t cross your legs!”, the other old lady who’s watching the door barks at him.Romeo’s desperate for the fortune teller’s help so he uncrosses his legs obediently.

“You’ll meet a foreign woman – she has the name of a flower. I hear a song in her voice, ” the old fortune teller says to him.

“Don’t smoke in front of the Saint!”, the other old woman shouts.

“The song will change your life.” The fortune teller seems to be the real deal. She’s guessed his name, knew about his parents, told him about his lady problems and Romeo is overjoyed by the news. Maybe his luck really is going to turn around – he could kiss the old bat.

“Don’t touch the Saint!” the door watcher screeches.

Later in Belgium when Romeo meets a woman with a song in her voice he assumes this is the woman of his destiny; and, who knows? Maybe she was. She’s a nut case with an annoying dog and the bloom is off the rose,  but she has a beautiful voice and she makes people cry when she sings Ne Me Quitte Pas. So they form a night club act and they’re successful. Only 1/4 into the movie and everything the fortune teller says would happen has happened.

But then he meets the other one with the flower name and the song in her voice. This one’s young and pretty and this is the kind of life change that Romeo had in mind. Played by Claudia Gerini, who is cute as a button and has a pretty good voice (she does her own singing), you can see why Romeo likes her. It isn’t one of those typical love stories where the man and the woman are both irritating and irritate each other and all of the sudden inexplicably fall into bed together without any hint that they can stand each other. Romeo and Iris like each other right off the bat and and the idea of a collaboration makes them happy.

Sono Pazzo di Iris Blond (I’m Crazy About Iris Blond) isn’t a major motion picture  – it’s a fun little movie, and it’s all Verdone. He directed it, he starred in it and he had a hand in writing it and Romeo is him, the sad sack Roman who hasn’t given up on happiness just yet. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s romantic, and the characters are likable.  What else do you want in a couple of hours of entertainment? American film makers should take notes from Carlo Verdone. Or maybe they should just have him take a look at their romantic comedies before they release them – maybe we could be spared the agony of movies like, “All About Steve”, “27 Dresses”, and “What Happened in Vegas”.

The complications in this love story are the kinds of thing that would actually happen. She’s younger. She’s impulsive. He’s not and he’s not. If their story had ended any other way it would have been all wrong.