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The Family

The Family (La famiglia)

Movie · 1987 · 3 people

Ettore Scola directed The Family (original title La famiglia), an Italian-French drama of 1987. Running 127 minutes, it makes an unusual bet: decades of history told without ever leaving one address, a large apartment in Rome. The production was made through Cinecittà, and in its release year it made a mark both at Cannes and in the Oscar race, winning the David di Donatello for Best Film.

The story is split into nine episodes, each separated from the next by a ten-year jump. We follow Carlo, a middle-class man, and his sprawling household across those intervals, while love, jealousy, political upheaval and the major events of the twentieth century, above all the two world wars, echo through the rooms of the flat. Vittorio Gassman, Andrea Occhipinti, Stefania Sandrelli, Fanny Ardant and Philippe Noiret lead the cast, with Sergio Castellitto, Cecilia Dazzi, Jo Champa, Massimo Dapporto, Carlo Dapporto and Ottavia Piccolo among the ensemble.

Scola wrote the screenplay with Ruggero Maccari, Furio Scarpelli and Graziano Diana. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 60th Academy Awards, representing Italy.

DirectorEttore Scola
Production companyCinecittà

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Cast

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Stefania Sandrelli Stefania Sandrelli Actor · 80 years old Fanny Ardant Fanny Ardant Actor · 77 years old Dagmar Lassander Dagmar Lassander Film actor · 83 years old

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Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

The formal constraint Ettore Scola sets himself is as interesting as the film itself: telling decades of family history in nine episodes, ten years apart, without ever leaving one Roman apartment. The approach turns the location into a kind of time machine, with corridors, rooms and doorways becoming a stage that generations pass across. The ensemble work of Vittorio Gassman, Fanny Ardant, Stefania Sandrelli and Philippe Noiret largely bridges the gaps between episodes. Still, the nine-part structure breaks the rhythm at times, and some episodes feel as if they exist only to hand over to the next. The Cannes competition slot, the Oscar nomination and the David di Donatello show the ambition was rewarded. A generous film for a patient viewer.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The Family watches twentieth-century Italy not from the great public squares but from inside a middle-class family's home. The two world wars and the political upheavals stay outside the door, yet their echoes seep into the dinner table, the marriages and the jealousies. That choice is valuable for showing how history is felt in ordinary people's daily lives. Carlo's sprawling household offers good ground for observing how relations between generations, and roles within the family, shift over the decades. Viewers who expect the era's big events to be explained in detail may be disappointed; the film chooses to make history felt rather than to narrate it.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

To be honest, 127 minutes in a single apartment, full of conversation and family business, is not my speed. Don't expect chases, fights or suspense set pieces; the film never promises them. The ten-year jumps do create some curiosity, since you want to see where everyone ends up. Ideal for fans of slow, actor-driven drama; anyone after adrenaline should save it for another night.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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