Luca Guadagnino, First Sun (09/04/10)

In some ways, I Am Love resembles a high class soap opera.

Let’s consider the evidence; there is a high-powered, mega-rich dynasty whose members are squabbling over the family business, an act of betrayal, marital infidelity and the revelation of one or two secrets all set against a ridiculously opulent backdrop. What sets I Am Love apart from other such dramas however is the fact that stylistically speaking it is an absolute treat for both eyes and ears. This is not so much a piece of cinema as a work of art which seduces you with the retro feel of its opening titles and then ensures that you do not want to look away for the next two hours.

The plot of I Am Love concerns the Recchi family whose vast fortune has been founded on the textile industry. In the fashion capital of Milan this is a pretty lucrative number to be involved in. At the start of the film, we see the elderly patriarch Edoardo Recchi (Gabriele Ferzetti,) surrounded by his relations as they celebrate what turns out to be his final birthday. Senor Recchi takes the opportunity to announce that he is handing over the business to his son Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) who has a dutiful Russian-born wife, Emma (Tilda Swinton.) In a shock move, Edoardo announces that Tancredi must share control with his own son, Edoardo Junior (Flavio Parenti).

Six months down the line and Edoardo Senior is dead. Tancredi and Edoardo Junior have already begun to disagree over how to run things. The father wants to save the family jewels by selling the company to a foreign interest resulting in redundancies amongst the workforce. Meanwhile, the son hopes to retain ownership and operate the company with a more progressive agenda. With her husband abroad, Emma has to manage the household and its body of servants. Her non-Italian lineage has already made her an outsider in the family and left by herself she finds that the endless tedious dinners and social events are beginning to stifle her.

Inspired by her young daughter coming out as a lesbian, Emma decides to break free and she embarks on an affair with a chef named Antonio (Edoardo Gabbreillini) who is a friend of her son. Antonio must be a damn good cook for just one little nibble on his prawn dish sends Emma into a silent rapture. Later, she stalks Antonio through the streets of his home town and they eventually end up making love in his hillside retreat accompanied by the symphony of nature. Sadly, Emma’s transgression does not go unpunished and the repercussions affect not only her but the whole Recchi tribe.

I Am Love is, as the title suggests, a passionate film. It virtually oozes out from each cell of the film thanks to Luca Guadagnino’s sensual direction. Guadagnino milks every last drop of visual splendour from his locations, such as the overly grand Recchi mansion and the stunning architecture of San Remo and Milan. If there is not a sudden rush in holiday bookings to Italy once I Am Love is released then I will be very surprised.

Guadagnino makes interesting directing choices, sometimes keeping the camera at a distance during scenes at the Recchi home as if to remind us that this is a privileged world that we can observe but not enter. He also likes to linger, with long takes concentrating on a single moment to emphasize its impact, such as Emma’s first taste of Antonio’s food which proves to be the spark that ignites the flame inside her.

There is also an excellent musical score, the first work for film by the composer John Cage of Nixon in China fame. A throwback to music from a good fifty years before, Cage’s bombastic soundtrack is the perfect accompaniment to the hyper-real approach of the movie as a whole.

As beautiful as the film looks it still needs a human heart beating inside it and that is largely provided by Tilda Swinton who gives a wonderful performance as Emma. An actress of palpable intelligence Swinton went to the trouble of learning not just Italian but also Russian for the part. This lends an amusing irony to a scene where Emma is unable to understand the speech of an English visitor.
 
At the screening I attended a fellow audience member became apoplectic over what he regarded as a lack of realism in the ending. I feel that he somehow missed the point. There is a certain amount of wish fulfilment in Emma’s fate but then the film, like the most outrageous of soap operas, does not care too much about being gritty and true to life. Instead, I Am Love encourages its audience to wallow in the fantasy that it has created for them.

...Plus, Also See