Overrated

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Marco Ferreri, during this era, made several films that had highly ambiguous endings, where optimism and pessimism were both raised to great heights and made barely distinguishable one from another. Previously he has made 'Ciao Maschio' (Bye-Bye Monkey) which left Jane Fonda sitting on the beach with a new baby looking at the ruins of her life.Here Ferreri is in less iconoclastic mood, but still the ironies pile up to a heart-stopping finale. What this film asks is the agonising question 'Do we, by educating children, remove from them that which makes them wonderful?' Of course, there is more than that, but, when push comes to shove, that is what the film is about.There may be a more Jungian film, but I don't know of it. Here we have 'liberal' primary school teacher Roberto (Bengini) on a collision course with the 'authorities'. We have a bunch of, possibly autistic, children and we have the wondrous mother earth of Dominique Laffin (Isabella), who, as far as I am concerned was the greatest screen siren since Marilyn Monroe. (How sad that she died before the world recognised her beauty and talent.) As Roberto and Isabella coalesce, procreate and 'rescue' these damaged little souls, Ferreri asks some huge questions about existence, evolution and our place in the universe. In the final shot, as Roberto carries his loved but irreparably damaged charge into the unforgiving sea, we see this tragic drama through the eyes of a caged frog. There are few films that I think I can't really get my head around, but this is certainly one of them!

In Chiedo Asilo, Ferreri manages to find a perfect balance between urban space, and its small heterotopias that dwell in the cities. From factories, to nursery homes in factories, to small churches in the country, Ferreri places a group of children who get a visit from a very non- orthodox kindergarten teacher, played by a young Benigni. He does everything but teach them "things". Instead of investing in them small lectures of activities to keep them busy till their parents pick them up, he instead opts for bringing animals in the classroom, unleashed, so they can experience contact directly; he takes the kids on an improvised field trip to see their parents who work at factories. Alas, for all the edifying activities he presents them, Benigni can't seem to behave himself as a responsible adult: His has many girlfriends, some of which are his pupil's parents. As he zigzags in between all these situations, he applies a pedagogical treatment with his little students that little has to do with the expectations of kindergarten. He sees preschool as an a refugee, where kids can just be kids, where their sense of language and exploration can be organic, unorganized and free-floating, before moving on a educational system (school) that just feeds them data, and stimulates mindless competition. As Benigni's character sees it, that little preschool in the middle of the factory and housing complexes is a small oasis, it's an alternative space, unregulated by the long arm of education, discipline and "survivial of the fittest" ideology. One of Ferreri's film that touches an emotional fiber, and yet manages to retain all the absurdist gestures that make up his more extreme and radical work. A diamond in the rough, that needs no polishing, because its crystallized narrative roughness and pacing is part of what makes this film a classic "film with children". like Zero in Conduct, 400 Blows, or the Red Balloon, by Lamorisse.

I give this movie a ONE, for it is truly an awful movie. Sound track of the DVD is so bad, it actually hurts my ear. But the vision, no matter how disjointed, does show something really fancy in the Italian society. I will not go into detail what actually was so shocking , but the various incidents are absolutely abnormal. So for the kink value, i give it one.Otherwise, the video, photography, acting of the adults actors /actresses are simply substandard, a practical jock to people who love foreign movies.Roberto, the main character, has full spectrum of emotions but exaggerated to the point of being unbelievable.however, the children in the movie are mostly 3/4 years old, and they are genuine and the movie provides glimpse of the Italian life..

Awful! Absolutely awful! No plot, no point, no end. It looks like the director turned the camera on and then the whole crew went to lunch. Every day. I'm trying to GIVE this video away but no one will take it. I'm giving it a 2 instead of a 1 because I like Benigni. Roger, I'm going to have to say thumbs down on this one.