LIKE CRAZY/ Folles de joie

Los Angeles Premiere • Drama, Comedy • Italy, France, 2016

DCP • 2.35 • Dolby 5.1 • Color • 116 min

Directed by: Paolo Virzi
Written by: Paolo Virzi, Francesca Archibugi
Cinematography: Vladan Radovic
Film Editing: Cecilia Zanuso
Original Score: Carlo Virzi
Produced by: Birgit Kemner (Manny Films), Manuel Collas de la Roche (Lotus Productions), RAI Cinema.
Cast: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (Beatrice Morandini Valdirana), Micaela Ramazzotti (Donatella Morelli), Bob Messini (Pierluigi Aitiani), Sergio Albelli (Torrigiani)
International Sales: Bac Films Distribution
U.S. Distributor: Strand Releasing
U.S. Release Date: May 2017

Actresses Valerie Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramozzotti are at the height of their games as comically mismatched escapees from a mental institution. The story begins in a stately Tuscan villa converted into a retreat for unstable women. Beatrice (Tedeschi) is an entitled, manically motor-mouthed compulsive liar. Donatella is a withdrawn depressive, deeply damaged by life. As much as Donatella dwells on the past, Beatrice lives for the moment, so when she sees an opportunity to get away from hospital staff, she seizes it, with Donatella in tow. The two hit the road on an outlaw odyssey that includes sexy cars, expensive dinners, fortunetellers, an ex-this and a former-that, and any manner of self-medicating, all without a Euro to scrounge between them. They aim to find happiness, but that turns out to be a tricky thing to nail down. Even a lighthearted jaunt in the Tuscan sun can take you to a deeper, more emotionally resonant destination.

Known for comedies built around unhappy situations, writer/director Paolo Virzi is a latter day torch-bearer for the Commedia all’italiana tradition. Virzi got his start as a screenwriter for features and television, often teaming up with childhood friend Francesco Bruni. The pair wrote Virzi’s debut feature, La bella vita, in 1994, which took the David di Donatello Award for Best New Director.  Virzi has worked with both of his leading ladies before. Ramozzotti was awarded a Best Actress Donatello for her performance in Virzi’s The First Beautiful Thing (2010). The film would go on to be Italy’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Academy Awards. Valerie Bruni Tedeschi played a high-society housewife in Human Capital (2014), Virzi’s adaptation of the Stephen Amidon novel about the 2008 financial crisis. Virzi’s first English language film, The Leisure Seeker, starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland, is set for completion in 2017.