The warmth of banked embers

Rating: 7/10 (30 June 2012)

For most of the past decade Woody Allen has been revisiting old themes in new places. He writes a witty script, hires a good cameramen, has great actors flock to him because he writes great lines for them and directs the film efficiently. So we have travel vistas that he has even been putting the city's name in, like VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, MIDNIGHT IN Paris and now the Fellini-esque TO ROME WITH LOVE.
If you get the idea that I look down on these efforts, let me say I enjoy them very much. Mr. Allen has reached an age and ability in his craft where he can do things easily and smoothly, so that the three farces that make up this anthology set in the Eternal City offer some wonderful excuses to show off the city. My favorite is the one about Roberto Benigni, an ordinary man who suddenly finds himself a celebrity upon whom the media hang. His bewilderment is a lovely, comic performance. However, if you prefer the one about the retired record producer who makes the machetunim an opera sensation in the shower or the the one about the young temptress, that's fine too.