original title:
Tris di donne & abiti nuziali
directed by:
cast:
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
music:
producer:
production:
Kubla Khan, Rai Cinema, Camaleo Film, supported by Ministero della Cultura
distribution:
world sales:
country:
Italy
year:
2009
film run:
98'
format:
35mm - colour
release date:
18/09/2009
festivals & awards:
Franco Campanella is an office worker in his 50s, the affectionate father of Luisa and Giovanni and loving husband of Josephine, whom he met when she was very young during a trip to Germany and, with no hesitation, married after only a few weeks. Franco, above all, is a gambler. He has no particular preferences. He bets on the horses and plays poker, roulette and “zecchinetta” in the dingiest corners of Naples, he plays the lottery and three of a kind… He has no limits. Up to now he has always managed to maintain a balance, albeit precarious, between his public life and his life as a gambler. Sure, over the years, he has created an interminable series of problems and hassle, ha has asked for loans and made a fool of himself with everyone, and his son Giovanni openly disapproves of him, but it is nothing irreparable. Or at least this is how he, in his ignorance, thinks things are, blind to the profound wounds he has inflicted on his family. Now, though, an important event is approaching: the wedding of his beloved daughter Luisa to her long-time fiancé, Fabrizio. For the Campanella family, and in particular for Josephine, Luisa’s wedding has to be a perfect day, the day of their social redemption after the thousand problems created by Franco. Josephine has been planning everything for months, calculating every expense to the last cent: the meal, the church, the thousand details of the ceremony, while the young couple are practically living as recluses to save every last euro they can from their salaries. Franco too would like to contribute by buying a beautiful wedding dress, regardless of what it might cost. But where will he find the money, since his bank account is almost empty? He has promised his wife and children to give up on the cards and horses and to try to behave like an adult at least until after the ceremony. But there is only one possible answer for him… he can only see one path to get the money he needs to make his daughter’s dream come true, the path he always takes: gambling. He is certain that this time fate will help him. But instead, yet again, fate lets him down and leads him into an uninterrupted series of misfortunes and situations that veer from the comic to the fantastic to the tragic as he tries to put things right.