I am Love
Cinema Nova 05/09/2010
Status: Behind by 6 films
I am Love felt more like an opera than a movie to me. Didn’t have any singing in it, but it did have most of the other hallmarks - an elaborate set in a faraway place (an enormous villa in Milan and then the Italian country-side), stunning costumes (structured, moneyed elegance evoking a 50s Vogue spread), a spectacularly dramatic score, a set of complexly intertwined characters, and the plot of a soapie. In addition, it also has an excellent cast and a beautiful art-feel.
TILDA SWINTON (Orlando, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) is the Russian-born wife of an Italian textile magnate (GABRIELE FERZETTI, Othello, Once Upon a Time in the West) - she’s a bored housewife in a stylish cage. Through her eldest son, Edo (FLAVIO PARENTI), she is introduced to Antonio (EDOARDO GABBRIELLINI), a young, poor, passionate chef. Fireworks and an affair ensue. Tragedy forces proceedings to a climax and rushes the film towards a resolution.
The plot is fairly thin but, like an opera, the film relies on other elements to carry the grand scale of the thing it - the cinematography, the performances, the pervasive mood and the unconventional score. Just like an opera, but, y’know, without the singing.
