BETS & WEDDING DRESSES
Franco Campanella is a clerk in his 50s, a loving father of Luisa and Giovanni, and a loving husband of Josephine, whom he met very young during a trip to Germany and without hesitation married within a few weeks. Franco, above all, is a player. He has no particular preference. He plays poker and horses, roulette and “zecchinetta” in the darkest places in Naples, lotto and tris… He sets no limits for himself. So far he has always managed to maintain a balance, albeit precarious, between his public life and his life as a gambler. Sure, he has created an interminable series of troubles and inconveniences for the family over the years, he has borrowed money and made fools of himself with everyone, and his son John openly disapproves of him, but nothing irreparable. Or so he thinks as an unconscious man who cannot see the deep wounds inflicted on his family. Now, however, an important deadline is approaching: the wedding of his beloved daughter Luisa to her longtime boyfriend, Fabrizio. For the Campanellas, and particularly for Josephine, Luisa’s wedding must be a perfect day, the day of their social redemption after the thousand tribulations created by Franco. Josephine has been planning everything for months, calculating every expense to the penny: the banquet, the church, the thousand details of the ceremony, while the boys live almost as recluses in order to save every last euro of their salary. Franco also wants to contribute by buying a beautiful wedding dress, regardless of the price. But where to get the money, as his bank account is approaching zero? He has promised his wife and children to stop with cards and horses and to behave like a mature person, at least until the ceremony. But there is only one possible answer for him–he sees only one way to put together the money needed to properly realize his daughter’s dream, the way he always has: gambling. He is sure that this time fate will help him. Instead, once again fate betrays him, and the series of troubles and situations, now comic, now whirlwind, now tragic, into which he gets himself into in order to make up for it begins again without end.
Date
18 September 2009
Director
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