original title:
La vita altrui
directed by:
cast:
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
music:
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production:
Arcadia, supported by Ministero della Cultura
world sales:
country:
Italy
year:
2000
film run:
84'
format:
colour
release date:
25/08/2000
Riccardo (Jerzy Stuhr) and Carmen (Iaia Forte) are married and have a small son called Roberto. Riccardo teaches theoretical philosophy at university and occasionally frequents a brothel called the Mitos Club. A book he has written is published and he is invited onto a talk show called La Vita Altrui - Other People's Lives - hosted by Valeria (Giusi Cataldo) an ambitious young journalist and daughter of Giovanni (Renato De Carmine), a lawyer. Giovanni has a client on trial for corruption and this has negative effects both on Valeria's career and the ratings of her show. Jessica, a 14 year-old runaway, is the subject of one of Valeria's shows. Anna (Maria Consagra), a judge who specialises in juvenile crime and Jessica is just one of the cases she is investigating. Anna wants to live with Vittorio (Massimo De Francovich), a psychoanalyst with a twenty-year old daughter called Caterina. Theirs is a strange relationship characterized by Caterina's numerous half-truths and mysteries but this does not bother Vittorio. One of Vittorio's patients is Irene (Luisi Pasello), an upper class lady obsessed with killing her husband, Andreoli (Renato Carpintieri), a lawyer who is also familiar with the case of Jessica. Riccardo discovers that one of his students is also a prostitute at the Mitos Club but it seems that she does not recognise him. An unknown person consigns an envelope to Riccardo's house that contains a photograph showing Riccardo entering the Mitos Club...