(3.5/5)
Luca Guadagnino’s “Io sono l’amore” (“I Am Love”) (2009), up to now, is the only Italian feature released in Australian film theatres this year. UK actresses Tilda Swinton is the main star and producer of the film, which has proven to be a drawing card. The film’s captivating imagery, however, proves better than its narrative. The visuality of the film is also consistent with the tradition of Italian classical cinema, which was able to communicate its content to a wider international audience using more expressive film making.
“Io sono l’amore” (“I Am Love”) tells the story of a northern Italian business family and the founder of the company, who becomes the subject of intense attention after he decides to pass his business on to his son. The dynamics of the extended family are explored in images and themes of psychology that vary between expectation, validation, fear of refusal, unwanted responsibilities and claustrophobia. Guadagnino’s tycoon family shares similarities with other famous wealthy dynasties in other melodramas, like Douglas Sirk’s “Written on the Wind” and even Luchino Visconti’s “The Leopard”. The plot is too literal, the characters have little depth and the motivation behind their actions is often superficial. Emma Recchi, Russian wife of the family new boss Recchi (actor Pippo Delbono), discovers an interest in her son’s friend, a young culinary champion. This side of the story, even though it is visually beautiful, does not evade the deja vu we feel when we juxtapose it with the modern Lady Chatterly, where Emma is the lady and the cook (Antonio Gramellini) and plays the role of a modern Gardner/down to earth male object. The whole narrative is so predictable that only very elaborate editing and musical dance enables audiences to enjoy it. It’s no surprise that the film has been playing with more success and critical recognition outside of Italy; verbal exchanges are not as vexing to non-Italian audiences as they would be to Italian audiences. In his one dimensional portrait of a cooking heartthrob, Guadagnino relies on the previous documentary experience, “Cuoco Contadino” (“Peasant Cook”) (2004), which focuses on Italian cooking master Paolo Masieri.
Guadagnino provides us with a new type of Italian cinema, one that has a much more constrained visual approach and a far less literal screenwriting strategy.
Popularity: 6% [?]
