In 2016, the Italian Paolo Genovese created one of the great international phenomena, ‘Perfect strangers’, a film that has had more than twenty versions or remakes and that in Spain has had an adaptation with Álex de la Iglesia. A year later, he took a more disturbing approach with “The Place: The Price of a Wish”. Four years later, the director returns to the universe of couples with ‘An Italian love story’.
Now, with ‘An Italian Love Story’, Genovese leaves aside the black humor and cynical touch of his successful parlor comedy and moves on to reflective marital drama that explores the different phases of a couple over a decade. It does so franklywith an optimistic gaze with which he explores the more romantic side of the drama and alternates it with other moments of tension, bitterness and tremendously heartbreaking situations.
Genovese, who signs the screenplay with Paolo Costella and Rolando Ravello, thus creates a proposal that could very well take over with Richard Linklater’s trilogy that began with ‘Before Dawn’, as well as with disparate films such as ‘A Walk to Remember’, ‘The Worst Person in the World’ or even ‘Secrets of a Marriage’frankly addressing typical issues of a couple’s life such as the need to have a common project, future prospects, considerable autonomy of one’s own, the awareness that the partner is not half but a travel companion, common interests or communication essential to know what kind of couple you are.
Genovese faces all this with naturalness and spontaneity. Add to this that a certain nostalgic touch is given with the introduction of secondary characters. The brief appearances of these help to create a certain feeling of a generational film that tells the passage of time, as did Gabriele Muccino in ‘Our best years’. Although Genovese, finally, remembers that, above all, what is being narrated is a conjugal drama, leaving these sequences to be a sort of pause for the conversation to come.
Beautiful marital drama with a formidable lead tandem
Although Genovese constructs an accurate complex couple drama, this one it would not have happened without its main tandem, played by Alessandro Borghi and Jasmina Trinca. Both have already coincided in the social drama ‘Fortunata’, in which Sergio Castellitto made them accomplices, albeit in a very different way. Trinca goes from being a single mother with financial problems to a young woman without a clear vocation who ends up betting on her passion for drawing and illustration and ends up being the author of a successful comic. Borghi goes from being an alternative junkie with Jesus Christ hair to a shy physics professor who hides an all-out heart behind his formal haircut and glasses.
Both know how to convey the different feelings and emotions that a couple experiences, including a thorny issue like infidelity. The two exude passion and chemistry. Just because they are so different, they both connect better. Then Genovese paints a very careful portrait of the couple. Add to this that it is impossible not to be carried away by the emotion that the most passionate scenes of him convey.
‘An Italian Love Story’ is a formidable love drama that sensitively explores different marital experiences, starting from the attentive and calm gaze, accompanying some characters that the director takes care of. A formidable return to the universe of personal conflicts, which once again demonstrates Genovese’s ability to look behind the scenes of its protagonists.
Note: 8
The best: The chemistry between Alessandro Borghi and Jasmine Trinca.
Worse: In some moments, the film lacks melodramatic.
Source: E Cartelera
