Can one eat culture? Monica (Paola Cortellesi) and Giovanni (Antonio Albanese) have very different opinions on the subject which is perhaps why their relationship ended almost immediately after it started. They haven’t seen each other for three years: he is a militant intellectual, who lives in the historical centre of Rome and socializes with the city’s elite, while preaching integration and dreaming of different horizons while she lives in Bastogi, a north-western suburb of Rome whose residential housing projects bear the painted slogan “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”, where she experiences the issue of integration on a daily basis.
However, when Monica ends up detained in Rebibbia prison, due to twins with a bag-snatching hobby, she turns to her friend for help in getting out. Once again Rome, with its endless contradictions between historical centre and suburb, provides the background to their meeting. Giovanni is working with ambitious Camilla (Sarah Felberbaum) on a project for a cultural centre in the Prenestino-Labicano neighbourhoodto the southeast of the city. Thanks to his contacts, he is able to transform Monica’s sentence into hours of social service at Don Davide’s (Luca Argentero) parish. The parish had a double location: the interiors, where a meal for everyone is organized after the service, are those of the Church of St. Joseph inFrattocchie, hamlet of Marino, south of Rome, while the exteriors show the pitched roof of Santa Maria Madre della Misericordia ai Gordiani. The simple façade, with tiled roof, is somewhat at odds with both Giovanni’s idea for the cultural centre which has the futuristic look of Rome’s Teano Metro Station, ironically located nearby, and the huge grey buildings in the background of the wider shots.
The suburbs alternate with the streets of the historical centre throughout: following Monica’s surprise visit to Giovanni’s elegant office, whose exteriors are Palazzo delle Poste, the former convent located on piazza San Silvestro, they drive through piazza San Giovanni in Laterano in the car. The outline of the Basilica of St. John Lateran appears again later when the couple decides to go on a first date again, an eco-sustainable outing on electric scooters. Giovanni takes an ecstatic Monica to Galleria Borghese where she stops to marvel at Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s sculpture The Rape of Persephone. Then back to the historical centre and down to underground Rome, descending the spiral stairs that lead to the Virgo aqueduct whose entrance is in piazza della Trinità dei Monti near Villa Medici. Giovanni and Monica walk along the underground path of the only Ancient Roman aqueduct still functioning today and pop out at the end inside the Trevi fountain. The last stop is the terrace of Castel Sant’Angelo with a stunning view over the Eternal City: “Rome is beautiful even when you kick her” says Monica, stunned by such beauty while St. Peter’s Basilica, rising before them, is equally stunning.
They invite everyone to the lunch, including Giovanni’s ex-wife, sophisticated Luce (Sonia Bergamasco), who answers the phone while walking down via Condotti with the Spanish Steps and piazza di Spagnabefore her. As the film’s title suggests, they meet at Coccia di Morto, the crowded, “proletarian” beach on the Fiumicino shoreline, actually the beach of Ostia idroscalo.
Can one eat culture? Monica (Paola Cortellesi) and Giovanni (Antonio Albanese) have very different opinions on the subject which is perhaps why their relationship ended almost immediately after it started. They haven’t seen each other for three years: he is a militant intellectual, who lives in the historical centre of Rome and socializes with the city’s elite, while preaching integration and dreaming of different horizons while she lives in Bastogi, a north-western suburb of Rome whose residential housing projects bear the painted slogan “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”, where she experiences the issue of integration on a daily basis.
However, when Monica ends up detained in Rebibbia prison, due to twins with a bag-snatching hobby, she turns to her friend for help in getting out. Once again Rome, with its endless contradictions between historical centre and suburb, provides the background to their meeting. Giovanni is working with ambitious Camilla (Sarah Felberbaum) on a project for a cultural centre in the Prenestino-Labicano neighbourhoodto the southeast of the city. Thanks to his contacts, he is able to transform Monica’s sentence into hours of social service at Don Davide’s (Luca Argentero) parish. The parish had a double location: the interiors, where a meal for everyone is organized after the service, are those of the Church of St. Joseph inFrattocchie, hamlet of Marino, south of Rome, while the exteriors show the pitched roof of Santa Maria Madre della Misericordia ai Gordiani. The simple façade, with tiled roof, is somewhat at odds with both Giovanni’s idea for the cultural centre which has the futuristic look of Rome’s Teano Metro Station, ironically located nearby, and the huge grey buildings in the background of the wider shots.
The suburbs alternate with the streets of the historical centre throughout: following Monica’s surprise visit to Giovanni’s elegant office, whose exteriors are Palazzo delle Poste, the former convent located on piazza San Silvestro, they drive through piazza San Giovanni in Laterano in the car. The outline of the Basilica of St. John Lateran appears again later when the couple decides to go on a first date again, an eco-sustainable outing on electric scooters. Giovanni takes an ecstatic Monica to Galleria Borghese where she stops to marvel at Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s sculpture The Rape of Persephone. Then back to the historical centre and down to underground Rome, descending the spiral stairs that lead to the Virgo aqueduct whose entrance is in piazza della Trinità dei Monti near Villa Medici. Giovanni and Monica walk along the underground path of the only Ancient Roman aqueduct still functioning today and pop out at the end inside the Trevi fountain. The last stop is the terrace of Castel Sant’Angelo with a stunning view over the Eternal City: “Rome is beautiful even when you kick her” says Monica, stunned by such beauty while St. Peter’s Basilica, rising before them, is equally stunning.
They invite everyone to the lunch, including Giovanni’s ex-wife, sophisticated Luce (Sonia Bergamasco), who answers the phone while walking down via Condotti with the Spanish Steps and piazza di Spagnabefore her. As the film’s title suggests, they meet at Coccia di Morto, the crowded, “proletarian” beach on the Fiumicino shoreline, actually the beach of Ostia idroscalo.
