Monday 28 June 2021

IFF Film Review: "I Am Love" ("Io sono l'amore") (2009).


From the director of Melissa P. and Call Me by Your Name comes I Am LoveThis Italian romantic drama film directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Guadagnino, Barbara Alberti, Ivan Cotroneo and Walter Fasano. At a dinner -- during which her husband, Tancredi, learns that he and his son Edoardo Recchi Jr. are about to assume control of the Edoardo Recchi Sr.'s lucrative business -- Emma meets a chef named Antonio. Antonio and Emma soon find themselves in bed together. With the family already divided over the elder Recchi's unusual plans, Emma's affair is the wild card that might divide the family for good.

By June 2008, Tilda Swinton, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Pippo Delbono, Diane Fleri, Waris Ahluwalia, Marisa Berenson and Gabriele Ferzetti were cast in an Italian romantic drama with Guadagnino as director. Swinton and Guadagnino developed the film and tried to get it made for eleven years. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in August. Filming took place in Milan, Lombardia, Italy and throughout Liguria, Italy, as well as London, England. Swinton learned both Italian and Russian for the part, neither of which she spoke before filming. Gabbriellini said that when he was preparing for the role of Antonio, Guadagnino told him to watch Clint Eastwood in The Bridges of Madison County (1995) and also Ninetto Davoli in the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini to get an idea of how he wanted him to play the part. The first cut of the film was approximately two hundred and ten minutes long and the film's score comprises several works by Pulitzer Prize winning composer John Adams.

The film stars Swinton, Gabbriellini, Rohrwacher, Delbono, Fleri, Ahluwalia, Berenson and Ferzetti. The actors are superbly convincing. Swintont's performance is magnificent - this is the sort of performance that stretches across a lifetime. Swinton's performance is subtle but thorough, her body language conveys so many feelings... her stare is the reflection of the love he desires. 

The film frames the honesty of human feelings with a lucidity that transcends any sexual sphere. It is a good film. A modern-day Visconti, Guadagnino grants us entry into a world not only of wealth but of culture, which can be just as liberating. The director's use of location is almost too good to be true, and will likely make you want to book at trip to Italy immediately. This film is a beautifully shot lavish love letter to Italy, but even more, the slow unfolding of a love affair that meant something to two people who never thought it would blossom. This gently provocative new film is an insightful portrait of not just the awkward ungainliness of first love, but the intensely defining nature of how its effects define identities and trajectories. A masterpiece; a wise, wonderful, and perfectly crafted romance that lingers and enchants, standing tall as one of the finest cinematic achievements in recent memory. Guadagnino's film is sumptuous, sultry, and sincere. It's soaked with sensuality but defined by restrained tension and yearning expectation.

Simon says I Am Love (Io sono l'amore) receives:



Also, see my IFF review for Two Women (La ciociara).

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