The Way We Laughed | Telescope Film
The Way We Laughed

The Way We Laughed (Così ridevano)

Critic Rating

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User Rating

  • Italy
  • 1998
  • · 124m

Director Gianni Amelio
Cast Enrico Lo Verso, Francesco Giuffrida, Fabrizio Gifuni, Calogero Caruana, Roberto Marzo, Davide Negro
Genre Drama

Studying to become a teacher in Turin, Italy, Pietro is joined by his older brother, Giovanni, who has moved up from Sicily. While Giovanni is a worker with no schooling, Pietro shows considerable promise in academics, prompting the elder sibling to seek employment to support his brother's academic pursuits. Unfortunately, things don't go well for Giovanni and Pietro, and they face significant hardships as they try to improve their lives.

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What are critics saying?

100

Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington

This is a film precisely constructed, brilliantly imagined.

90

Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas

The sweeping, confounding conclusion therefore unfolds with a beauty and an ease that seem truly organic. The Way We Laughed has that feeling of being a work of art.

90

L.A. Weekly by F. X. Feeney

Writer-director Gianni Amelio masterfully chronicles the ways two people can betray each other, and especially themselves, in the name of love.

80

New Times (L.A.) by David Ehrenstein

Beautifully made and performed, this is a film of considerable insight into both the life of the impoverished and the mystery of human personality.

75

New York Post by Jonathan Foreman

Longwinded, slow-starting but moving film.

70

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

The film, beautifully shot in widescreen by Luca Bigazzi, is surprisingly accessible and always engaging, if ultimately tragic.

60

Film Threat

It's a damn impressive trick to build a film around narrative frustration and not cause your audience to run out screaming.

60

Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum

Wears its art, as well as its heart, on its sleeve -- so much so that I feel guilty for not liking it more.

40

Variety by David Rooney

Problematically structured, overly protracted and lacking in narrative fluidity.

38

New York Daily News by Jack Mathews

A ponderously slow experience.