What do an octogenarian Holocaust survivor and a Senegalese teenager living on the streets have in common? Nothing, but in the drama ‘Life ahead’ (‘La vita davanti a se’) this strange couple formed by Sophia Loren and the newcomer Ibrahima Gueye eats every scene in which she stars.
Loren does not disappoint
The return to the cinema of the great Italian celluloid lady comes from the hand of Netflix, 11 years after that forgettable film called ‘Nine’, in which Sohia appeared alongside a hodgepodge of big names like Judy Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz or Marion Cotillard (Fergie, the former Back Eyed Peas singer, also appeared).
After ‘Nine’, practically drought … except for a TV movie and the short film ‘Voce Umana’ directed by his son Edoardo Ponti in 2014 (the same story that Pedro Almodóvar and Tilda Swinton told us in 2020, ‘La Voz human’).
Mother and son have returned to work together in ‘Life ahead’, the film with which Sophia Loren could break a curious record: being the oldest woman (she is 86 years old) nominated for an Oscar for best actress. And reasons to be a strong candidate are not lacking, since Loren gives us here a spectacular role that, if it does not remove your guts, you are dead inside.
‘Life Ahead’ is the second film version of the homonymous novel by Romain Gary, the former husband of Jean Seberg; the first was in 1977 and was called ‘ Madame Rosa ‘, like the main character. On this occasion, and with the outskirts of the Italian city of Bari as the setting, the film tells the story of an ex-prostitute and survivor of Auschwitz (Loren), who makes a living taking care of the children of her professional colleagues.
But one day he runs into Momo (Gueye), a teenage thief who, due to circumstances, ends up taking in his home. The relationship between the two starts off on the wrong foot but, little by little, they will forge a strange friendship that takes hold as the footage progresses, until it reaches a tearful (but expected) end.
Momo then becomes part of the peculiar family of Madame Rosa, made up of Iosif, an undocumented child whose mother has abandoned her, and Lola, a neighbor whose young son is also taken care of by the protagonist. And in the small house that begins as a place of passage for him, Momo will begin to find his home.
‘Life ahead’ is a story of friendship, but it is also a story that teaches us the value of the family we choose, whether or not there are blood ties involved. It is also a narrative full of traditional dyes, which recreates those neighborhood environments in which everyone knows each other, where there was a social fabric that today, in most places, is conspicuous by its absence.
A luxury high school in ‘Life ahead’: the Spanish April Zamora
Abril Zamora is a well-known face of the small screen in our country: she appeared in ‘ Vis a vis ‘, she is the creator, director and scriptwriter of the series ‘Senoras del (h) AMPA’ and her signature is also behind some chapters of ‘Elite’.
But ‘Life ahead’ has also meant the leap to the international cinema for her. And what a jump. Abril, who is a transsexual woman and in all her projects gives visibility to the LGBT reality, can shine with her light giving life to Lola, the most tender role in the film. And he does it without allowing himself to be overshadowed (and look at how complicated it is) by the leading duo.
The veteran actress has placed herself under the command of Edoardo Ponti, the youngest of the two children she had with Carlo Ponti in a marriage that lasted from 1966 until the producer’s death in 2007.
Carlo Ponti and Sophia Loren formed a great team with director Vittorio De Sica in the 60s, thanks to which we now have classics such as ‘Two Women’, ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow ‘or’ Italian Marriage’, so With such a cinematographic legacy behind him, many eyes were on the youngest of the family with the premiere of ‘Life ahead’.
That does not seem to have weighed Edoardo, who has given us a delicious movie in which his mother plays a role that could easily be one of the most memorable of his (long) career. And look, that’s difficult on a resume like Sophia Loren’s.
