''A Brighter Tomorrow'' () is a 2023 Italian-French

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film co-written and directed by

Nanni Moretti Giovanni "Nanni" Moretti (; born 19 August 1953) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His films have won accolades, including a at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival for ''The Son's Room'', a Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize ...

. The film was released in Italy on 20 April 2023. It was selected to compete for the

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

at the

2023 Cannes Film Festival The 76th annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 16 to 27 May 2023. Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund served as jury president. With the French film ''Anatomy of a Fall'' winning the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, Justine Triet became ...

, where it was screened on 24 May 2023. It received seven nominations at the

69th David di Donatello The 69th David di Donatello ceremony, presented by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano, was held on 3 May 2024 at Cinecittà, Cinecittà Studios in Rome, to honour the best Italian films of 2023. It was hosted by RAI, Rai presenters Carlo Conti an ...

awards.

Synopsis

Giovanni is a director, who dreams to make a film adaptation from

John Cheever John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs ...

's " The Swimmer" with a soundtrack made of many Italian pop songs. He is married to Paola, who works with him as a producer. Together they have a daughter, who is a musician. While Giovanni is busy shooting a film about the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

, Paola starts working on another film production. Giovanni is resentful of Paola's extra professional engagement, as he feels she should concentrate on his career alone. Tension culminates during a visit Giovanni pays to the set of the film Paola is working on, where he openly criticises the director, the plot and the final scene they are shooting. Exasperated with Giovanni's attitude, Paola leaves him the next day. When Giovanni's film encounters financial troubles, Paola comes to his rescue by bringing in a team of South Korean producers. The events prove to have a deep effect on Giovanni, who decides to change the ending of his film and give it a more positive message.

Cast

Production

''Il sol dell'avvenire'' was co-written by

with collaborators

Francesca Marciano Francesca Marciano (born Rome, 17 July 1955) is an Italian novelist, screenwriter and actress. She was the recipient of the Rapallo Carige Prize for ''Casa Rossa'' in 2003. She won a David di Donatello award for best screenplay with '' Damned ...

, Federica Pontremoli and Valia Santella. The film was co-produced by Moretti through Sacher Film and by

Domenico Procacci Domenico Procacci (born 8 February 1960) is an Italian film producer. Life and career Born in Bari, Procacci debuted as a producer in the late 1980s, when he co-founded with Renzo Rossellini and others the production company Vertigo. In 1990 ...

through

Fandango Fandango is a lively partner dance originating in Portugal and Spain, usually in triple metre, triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, tambourine or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is u ...

, with

Rai Cinema Rai Cinema S.p.A. is an Italian film production company owned by RAI, the national public broadcaster of Italy. Since its inception, the company has invested nearly €1 billion in the production of over 900 films. History Rai Cinema was forme ...

and France's

Le Pacte Le Pacte is a French motion picture company headquartered in Paris. It specializes in film distribution, co-productions and international sales. It was founded by Jean Labadie in November 2007, shortly after he was forced out of his previous co ...

. It was produced in collaboration with

France 3 Cinéma France 3 () is a French free-to-air public television network. The second flagship network of France Télévisions, it broadcasts a wide range of general and specialized programming. France 3 is structured as a regional service with 13 re ...

, with the participation of

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

, Ciné+ and

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...

. Moretti called the film "complex and costly". Filming began on 8 March 2022. Shooting took place at

Cinecittà Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City) is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios were constru ...

, as well as on the streets of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. In May 2022, scenes were shot on Rome's

Via dei Fori Imperiali The Via dei Fori Imperiali (formerly ''Via dei Monti'', then ''Via dell'Impero'') is a road in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, that is in a straight line from the Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum. Its course takes it over parts of the For ...

, with an elaborate procession featuring a band, extras, horses and elephants. Moretti's use of animals on set was criticized by animal rights groups, including Lega Anti Vivisezione (LAV). Filming wrapped on 21 June 2022.

Release

''Il sol dell'avvenire'' was selected to compete for the

at the

, where it was screened on 24 May 2023. The film was theatrically released in Italy by

01 Distribution Rai Cinema S.p.A. is an Italian film production company owned by RAI, the national public broadcaster of Italy. Since its inception, the company has invested nearly €1 billion in the production of over 900 films. History Rai Cinema was forme ...

on 20 April 2023, before its Cannes screening, which, although considered a rare privilege, is permitted by the festival's regulations. It was theatrically released in France by

on 28 June 2023. It was also invited to the

27th Lima Film Festival The 27th Lima Film Festival, organized by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, took place from 10–18 August 2023 in Lima, Peru. The awards were announced on 18 August 2023, with Tótem (film), ''Tótem'' winning the Trophy Spondylus. B ...

in the Acclaimed section, where it was screened on 10 August 2023. It was also invited at the

28th Busan International Film Festival The 28th Busan International Film Festival () opened on October 4 at the Busan Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea. Song Kang-ho of ''Parasite (2019 film), Parasite'' fame welcomed filmmakers as host of the festival, while Park Eun-bin acted as ...

in 'Icon' section and was screened on 5 October 2023. International sales are handled by Kinology.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 54% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Moretti's ''8½'', ''A Brighter Tomorrow'' vibrantly presents a myriad of rose-tinted ideas celebrating the love of cinema that dip too far into nostalgia and self-indulgence." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 47 out of 100, based on 8 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Reviewing the film following its Cannes premiere,

Peter Bradshaw Peter Nicholas Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire'' magazine. Early life and education Bradshaw was educat ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' called it "bafflingly awful: muddled, mediocre and metatextual – a complete waste of time, at once strident and listless." French critics were more positive, including reviews by ''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

''s

Jacques Mandelbaum Jacques Mandelbaum (born 1 May 1958, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) is a French journalist and film critic, currently working for the newspaper ''Le Monde'' which he joined in 1995. He is the author of numerous works on the cinema including a biographical ...

, ''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

''s

Éric Neuhoff Éric Neuhoff (born 4 July 1956) is a French novelist and journalist. He debuted in 1982 as a journalist at '' Le Quotidien de Paris'' and used a style nicknamed "néo-hussard", after the Hussards (literary movement), Hussards movement of the 195 ...

and Etienne Sorin, and ''

Le Parisien ''Le Parisien'' (; ) is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of ...

''s Catherine Balle.

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brighter Tomorrow, A 2023 films 2023 comedy-drama films 2020s Italian films 2020s Italian-language films Italian comedy-drama films 2020s French films French comedy-drama films Italian-language French films Films directed by Nanni Moretti Fandango (Italian company) films Rai Cinema films Films shot at Cinecittà Studios Films shot in Rome Le Pacte films Films scored by Franco Piersanti