Chichester Cinema at New Park
I am Love
- Io Sono L’Amore
International Panorama: Italy
A film of great formal elegance with much simmering underneath its patrician surface.
Set in Milan’s upper classes, in the Art Deco villa of a family of great wealth, this is a film about repression and breaking free. From its 50s-style opening titles set over a snow-covered Milan and to John Adams scores, ‘I Am Love’ recalls Douglas Sirk and Visconti, so it’s a surprise to realise that it is all set more or less in the present day.
The Recchi family are winners. At a formal lunch party, ailing scion Edoardo Sr (Gabriele Ferzetti) celebrates his birthday by passing the business on to his son Tancredi (Pippo Delbono), and, unexpectedly, his grandson Edoardo (Flavio Parenti), the beloved heart of the family.
Although coolly beautiful and seemingly in control of her surroundings, Tancredi’s wife, Emma (Tilda Swinton) is evidently not entirely at ease: they have another son, Gianluca (Mattia Zaccaro) and a daughter Elizabeth (Alba Rohrwacher) who is an artist, and, it is later revealed, a lesbian.
There is much at play and so much not to give away in ‘I Am Love’, propelled by some terrific writing and performances and Swinton works her magic. The finale is magnificent, satisfyingly-operatic, melodrama, with Paiato and Swinton working together particularly well (subtitles).
Italy · 2009 · Luca Guardagnino · 119min
