Luca Guadagnino’s film, "I Am Love",  is the most gorgeously and lovingly photographed, beautifully directed and acted film, to come out of Europe since Visconti’s "Death In Venice".
Tancredi, (Pippo Delbono) the heir to an Italian textile fortune, meets Emma (Tilda Swinton) somewhere in her native Russia.  He whisked her home to Milan, set her up like a Roman statue alongside the other art in his grand estate, and made her a part of Milan’s society. Here, over the years, she gave him two sons and a daughter, all proper, handsome, brilliant and bred to the blood.
“I Am Love",  may move a bit slowly for the tastes of some American audiences, but in the way an Italian dinner party might be thought to be slow. Guadagnino, like the masters De Sica, Fellini and Visconti, takes his Italian time to establish character  and story in tiny ways: the simple act of slicing a prawn,  fussing over a dinner table seating plan, or in that which Italians always take very slowly, a first forbidden kiss. It is asked of us to be more Italian, to pay attention.

Within ten minutes of opening, we except the obvious. Luca Guadagnino’s film, "I Am Love",  is the most gorgeously and lovingly photographed, beautifully directed and acted film, to come out of Europe since Visconti’s "Death In Venice",  that gave us  the late Dirk Bogarde’s "Gustave Von Aschenbach",  a role that remains a classic.
The photography by Yorik Le Saux is key.  His camera clearly adores the architecture of Milan and the players. With the lovely enhancement of John Adams’ original score, we begin an Italian love story.
The excellent Tilda Swinton is here this time, not in a corporate business suit with sweaty fingers clutching a briefcase, and being traumatized by George Clooney, in "Michael Clayton"  but as Emma Recchi, a Russian enigma, a woman with the skin of a delicate orchid, and eyes the color of blueberry water. Swinton gives, as always, a mesmerizing performance.
In bits and pieces we learn that Emma met Tancredi, ( Pippo Delbono) the heir to an Italian textile fortune, somewhere in her native Russia.  He whisked her home to Milan, set her up like a Roman statue alongside the other art in his grand estate, and made her a part of Milan’s society. Here, over the years, she gave him two sons and a daughter, all proper,handsome, brilliant and bred to the blood.
Emma floats like gold dust, fabulously gowned, in and out of the magnificent rooms, entertaining guests and playing the perfect wife to a perfect billionaire.   She oversees a staff of servants not seen since Anthony Hopkins commanded his palatial ship in "Room With A View". Yet people seem to float through her, even her family.
The film begins with a grand birthday party for the family patriarch, the elderly and ailing Edoardo. This night, Edoardo announces that he is handing over the  wheel to his son Tancredo. There will be however, an unsettling catch.But all of this is to Emma, like the far away song of cicadas.  She is only expected, in this masculine world, to be like the rare orchid she resembles, lovely and silent.
At winter’s end, Emma discovers by accident, that her beloved daughter Elisabetta (Alba Rohrwacher) has fallen in love with a fellow student at her school ... a woman.
Emma loves her daughter, and the matter is powdered over. But with this revelation, and Edo’s discontent with family business, the family’s privileged and long cultivated calm begins to show cracks. Change is in the air, and it  will come suddenly like a door blown open in the wind. It will come as Antonio, a friend of Edo’s from school and the son of a Milan restauranteur.
Antonio, (Edoardo Gabbriellini) is of the middle working class, a handsome young, bearded, tanned and gentle master of the art of cuisine. In the mountains, he has a small patch of inherited land he hopes, with the help of Edo, to turn into a restaurant. Emma will pay a visit, and Antonio will prepare a plate of perfectly, almost magically prepared prawns.
Here, in a gorgeous moment, director Luca keeps his camera fastened to Emma as she savors each morsel. Her eyes close and,  we suspect, by her reaction, that this is what  Eve must have  felt at the first bite of the apple.
Now the long hidden spirit of our Emma leaps out.  She arranges her schedule so as to run "accidentally" into Antonio. Soon,the tiny things of new love, of furtive passion, will begin to fluster, charm and eventually seduce our Emma and Antonio.
Director Guadagnino will  now supply an Eden for this forbidden love. He will provide  a high mountain glade, sunshine and bees buzzing around blossoms, tiny diamonds of sweat on naked bodies.  There will be a warm Italian sun  and all the ingredients for “Amore Illecito.”
He will as well, shock us with a heart breaking tragedy wrapped in wet stone and splashing water. It will come as a surprise, as will the final scene in the aftermath of a funeral, when the haunted Emma splinters the family with just three words.
The cast in support of the wonderful Swinton is an exceptional one.  Delbono, as the laced up husband, Antonio Biscaglia as the patriarch, Diane Fleri as  Eva, the major domo and conscience of the household, and the dashing young Flavio Parenti as the favorite son, all give rich, realistic performances.  Alba Rohrwacher, as Elisabetta, Emma’s daughter, is a newcomer who makes her mark here with one beautiful moment at the end.
“I Am Love",  may move a bit slowly for the tastes of some American audiences, but in the way an Italian dinner party might be thought to be slow. Guadagnino, like the masters De Sica, Fellini and Visconti, takes his Italian time to establish character  and story in tiny ways: the simple act of slicing a prawn,  fussing over a dinner table seating plan, or in that which Italians always take very slowly, a first forbidden kiss. It is asked of us to be more Italian, to pay attention.
Note: Don’t miss the credits. There is one final moment to be seen.

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/reallife/
happening/I-Am-Love----An-Italian-story.html
 

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