I quite disagree with Michele. LA CENA is a fulfilling experience, and quite up to my favorites by Scola, such as LA NUIT DE VARENNES. Like that masterpiece, LA CENA demands an attentive audience, one astute enough to follow disparate conversations among characters who clearly have lives before and after the period covered in the film. I laughed quite a bit, shed a few tears, and liked the fact that, while a few of the characters stories were resolved after a fashion, most were left open, as you would expect in a trattoria with such a Roman cross section. Welcome old pros Giannini (who has a wonderful explosion of temper), Sandrelli (who provides an aching portrait of ageing vanity),and Gassmann (who gives a pungent running commentary on the evening) are terrific, but the radiant Fanny Ardant (fabulous down to her very red shoes) was the one who made me wish that there really was such a place to drop into next time I'm in Rome...
