THE FAMILY ("La Famiglia", 1987)

Some houses don’t just hold families — they breathe them in. Brick by brick, wall by wall, they soak up whispered arguments, wedding toasts, childhood tantrums, late-night confessions, and everything else that gets buried underneath a well-laid table. This month, we're stepping into Ettore Scola’s sprawling domestic diorama, a film that turns one apartment in Rome into a lifelong observatory of love, politics, sibling rivalry, and the slow, inevitable passing of time...

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THE FAMILY ("La Famiglia", 1987)
Dir. by Ettore Scola
Available on Amazon Prime or on the Roku Channel (free with ads)

It starts with a christening and ends with a gathering, and in between lies nearly a century of one family’s stubborn, tender, and utterly human continuity. Carlo, our soft-spoken narrator, grows from a curious boy into the weary patriarch of an ever-expanding clan—all without leaving the familiar rooms of his grandfather’s apartment. Birthdays, holidays, arguments, alliances, flirtations, feuds: they all unfold around the same tables and under the same chandeliers, as though the space itself were keeping score.

A panoramic group portrait disguised as a generational drama, Scola's Oscar-nominated family epic is a nostalgic shuffle through the small rituals that hold families together even as they drive one another mad. It’s funny, melancholic, and just a bit theatrical—like flipping through an old photo album only to realize you’re still living on the last page. Let’s talk about it!

*As always, this is a movie discussion group—we invite you to watch the film on your own ahead of time, and come ready to discuss.*