Synopsis for
Volere volare (1991) More at IMDbPro »

'Volere Volare' may be introduced as a film akin to 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit', but if you know of this director's work from 'The Icicle Thief', you'll be expecting much more - which it delivers. Maurizio Nichetti's charming and quirky comedy blends live action and animation in a lighthearted, though cheerfully lightweight, love story.

Nichetti's fondness for combining fantasy with reality is again given reign with a story of Maurizio, a sound dubber looking for love. Shy, bumbling, and naive, he devotes himself to his low-paying job by recording odd sounds - people falling over, hammers tapping, wandering the streets of his town looking for the perfect accompaniment to old-fashioned and out-of-fashion cartoons. His brother Patrizio (Patrizio Roversi) is exasperated by his lack of initiative in love and provides a hilarious foil as a director of soft-porn "art films" with a bevy of non-Italian-speaking, lingerie-clad aspiring actresses. He ends up offering to employ Maurizio as a sound technician for one of these lurid films, with the hope that it will add some courage to his love life.

The introduction of Angela Finocchiaro's Martina provides the romance Maurizio seeks - a working-girl who specializes in fetishes, fulfilling some of the most comical and interesting fantasies with a tender and accepting smile. Twin architects get to clean her apartment and watch her shower; a taxi driver gets to take her on full-speed races around Rome just to hear her scream and with a fantastic spin on The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, a chef decorates her in bittersweet chocolate - and tops it off with a flourish of confectionary.

Their chance meeting ends up with Maurizio becoming accidently entangled in the working life of Martina and becoming part of the clients stories. Delighted with his non-judgmental attitude, Martina asks him on a date... which leads to the weirdest development yet. Maurizo's shy nature suddenly becomes implicit as he begins to turn into a cartoon, limb by limb. Fleeing the date, things only get worse as his hands develop ideas of their own and he disastrously presents his soundtrack ideas to a horrified Patrizio.

Can he keep his developing animated state hidden? Will he succeed as a soundtrack creator for pornography? And most importantly... has he found love? Nichetti hasn't made a Titanic or Gone With the Wind - but as a modern, quirky tale that implicitly questions preconceptions about kinky consensual relationships, it succeeds beautifully. Consider it a social-comment confectionary with a hint of cartoon chocolate.