Saturday, September 11, 2010

Io Sono L'amore/I Am Love

Movie name: Io Sono L'amore/I Am Love
Year of release: 2009
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Stars: Tilda Swinton, Marisa Berenson, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Diane Fleri, Maria Paiato, Pippo Delbono, Gabriele Ferzetti, Mattia Zaccaro
Genre: Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 9

Synopsis:Luca Guadagnino and Tilda Swinton have a relationship that goes back quite a few years. They have done "The Protagonists" together and "Tilda Swinton: The Love Factory". "Io Sono L'Amore" is very much an opulent melodrama based in the tradition of Luchino Visconti's films. The film follows Emma Recchi, a Russian woman who married a rich Italian industrialist, with whom she has had 3 children. The family is on the verge of change, since the patriarch of the family is dying and he is leaving control of the empire to his son and eldest grandson. Emma lives her life quietly and peacefully, trying to be a good understanding mother to her children and a good wife for her husband. One of her son's friends, Antonio, enters the storyline, as both of them decide to open a restaurant. Antonio, finds Emma irresistible and soon they become in love. This love affair produces unexpected results in Emma's and her family's lives.
Luga Guadagnino's talent is on display in this beautiful film, that takes the time to introduce us to this bourgeois family, where the luxury is clearly on display and where the family dynamics are all too apparent. There is a tranquility in the way these lives are led, but there's also a constraint in all this serene contemplation of living. Emma clearly longs for love, something she finds in a much younger man, who creates a spark in her life, something that burns away everything she has. Her children are all grown, all of them finding their own paths in life and even in the tragedy that occurs, the path and motions that have been set forth, can not be denied. This is a film that treasures the details, revisiting the style of Italian drama of the 50s and 60s, but with a contemporary feel, something that the ravishing cinematography and soundtrack undeniably help achieve. Tilda Swinton creates a fantastic character, with her serene beauty, that is destroyed by pain and uplifted by love. This is her film, through and through. A fantastic film.

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