I love love love Italy (that’s me on the right).  Which is why I was so delighted that Michael Moore’s new documentary, Where to Invade Next started there.  Two years ago I had the great pleasure of spending six weeks in Italy for work and pleasure.  What I saw there was what I saw in Moore’s film:  PLEASURE, EASE, CONNECTION.

From the film, I learned that Italians have about eight weeks of paid vacation, + holidays + a 13th month of pay that comes to them each December.  This and health care, education.  When we were in Italy, we didn’t just see tourists in the cafes, museums and restaurants.  There were Italians relaxing, eating, drinking, walking together and talking, smiling, not buried in cell phones, isolated, rushed and pissed off. I felt it in my bones – an ease and opening that is somehow harder to find here.

Maybe the most sobering moment came at the end, in Iceland, when Moore asked a woman to take two minutes to speak directly to the American people.  She was silent, and then said passionately, sternly, that she would NEVER want to be our neighbors or live in our country, because as a culture we are all about the “me” and not the “us.”  It was more complex and well spoken than that – and breathtaking. Iceland and Tunesia have recognized that the answer to many of society’s ills is more women engaged in all tiers of society, especially the political and corporate worlds.  Women are hardwired (it’s in the DNA) to be inclusive, caring  and concerned about the whole, not the individual.

Everyone on the planet should see this film.  Especially in this particularly venal and ugly political climate. Moore’s work is nuanced, compassionate, by turns funny and frightening. Find a theater.  Watch this film.  Take a friend.  Spread the word.