Buried secrets and a criminal past lead the proprietor of a swank hotel in Germany to desperate acts in this powerful drama from the director of Lessons in Chocolate (NIC 2008). When Diego and Eduardo, two young hotheads visiting from Italy on shady business, arrive at Rosario’s establishment, it is soon evident that they want more from him than just a place to lie low. Married to a German woman and with a young child, Rosario (Toni Servillo, unforgettable once again) pretends that he’s just extending a courtesy to his countrymen, but the motivations behind their visit become increasingly fraught on all sides until the hotelier is forced to protect the new life he’s built—at all costs.


Una vita tranquilla, Italy/France/Germany 2010, 103 min. Written by Filippo Gravino, Guido Iuculano, Claudio Cupellini. Photographed by Gergely Pohárnok. With Toni Servillo, Marco d’Amore, Francesco di Leva, Juliane Ko¨hler. In Italian, German and Neapolitan with subtitles, Beta Cinema.