A must-see for fans of parallel storylines…. Dino (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is a social-climbing real-estate investor who can’t wait to buy into a hedge fund run by his wealthy new friend, Giovanni (Fabrizio Gifuni), whose teenaged son is dating Dino’s daughter Serena. The movie begins, almost, with Dino’s story, but then retells the story from two other points of view, starting with Giovanni’s wife (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), who spends her days shopping, but once dreamed of a career in theater.
The film’s central event is a bicycle rider’s collision with an SUV on a dark highway near Milan. Besides the mystery of who the driver was, the title suggests the greater theme of money. Social class is only a subtext, but it’s a big part of what’s intriguing about the film, a seamless adaptation by director Paolo Virzì of a novel by American writer Stephen Amidon.
IMDb link
viewed 10/20/14 3:20 pm at Ritz East [Philadelphia Film Festival]
Showing posts with label Milan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Milan. Show all posts
Monday, October 20, 2014
Friday, June 25, 2010
I Am Love (**1/4)
The rich, wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald, are different from you and me. Servants wait on them, they live on great estates, and they pass large fortunes on to their progeny. But their fears and desires are not unfamiliar. When an Italian patriarch makes a surprising choice as to who will succeed him as the head of the family-run textile business, we wonder if it will cause a rift. When the daughter of the family secretly confides to her mother than she is a lesbian, we wonder why it must be a secret. When the son ponders opening a restaurant with a new friend, we wonder if he’ll abandon his role in the business.
Don’t wonder too much, because the main subject of the movie is the mother, Emma, played by Tilda Swinton. Learning that her son’s friend is a cook, she takes an interest in the younger man. Swinton’s gifts apparently include speaking Italian with a Russian accent, as her character is an immigrant. (There is here the curiosity of having two native English speakers in significant roles, as Marissa Berenson plays Emma's sister-in-law.) In fact, the drama comes out of an earlier documentary director Luca Guadagnino did about the actress.
Guadagnino’s direction tends to draws attention to itself. At its best, his use of long shots, quiet, and ambient sounds emphasizes both the grandeur and the singularity of the family’s lifestyle. At other times, the use of unusual angles, odd close-ups, and jarring compositions by modern classical composer John Adams seems off-putting and pretentious.
Food lovers may enjoy the movie; it’s hard to say which is more pruriently displayed, the sins of the flesh or of the palate. The leisurely sex scene, intercut with shots of insect on flowers, gauzy shots of torsos, and closeups of skin, is positively operatic. On the other hand, a loving close-up of a seafood appetizer lasts so long that I thought there must be a secret message, written in balsamic vinegar, on the plate.
All in all, this was like a coproduction of Architectural Digest and Food & Wine. The characters seemed distant, like they were in a magazine. In the end, I felt a little like the diner given the seafood dish. It was beautiful to look at, but in the end you realize there are only three shrimp on the plate, and you are left in want of something more substantial.
IMDB link
viewed 7/7/10 at Ritz 5 and reviewed 7/11 and 8/3/10
Don’t wonder too much, because the main subject of the movie is the mother, Emma, played by Tilda Swinton. Learning that her son’s friend is a cook, she takes an interest in the younger man. Swinton’s gifts apparently include speaking Italian with a Russian accent, as her character is an immigrant. (There is here the curiosity of having two native English speakers in significant roles, as Marissa Berenson plays Emma's sister-in-law.) In fact, the drama comes out of an earlier documentary director Luca Guadagnino did about the actress.
Guadagnino’s direction tends to draws attention to itself. At its best, his use of long shots, quiet, and ambient sounds emphasizes both the grandeur and the singularity of the family’s lifestyle. At other times, the use of unusual angles, odd close-ups, and jarring compositions by modern classical composer John Adams seems off-putting and pretentious.
Food lovers may enjoy the movie; it’s hard to say which is more pruriently displayed, the sins of the flesh or of the palate. The leisurely sex scene, intercut with shots of insect on flowers, gauzy shots of torsos, and closeups of skin, is positively operatic. On the other hand, a loving close-up of a seafood appetizer lasts so long that I thought there must be a secret message, written in balsamic vinegar, on the plate.
All in all, this was like a coproduction of Architectural Digest and Food & Wine. The characters seemed distant, like they were in a magazine. In the end, I felt a little like the diner given the seafood dish. It was beautiful to look at, but in the end you realize there are only three shrimp on the plate, and you are left in want of something more substantial.
IMDB link
viewed 7/7/10 at Ritz 5 and reviewed 7/11 and 8/3/10
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