I Am Love is an Italian melodrama mixing in a very elegant manner the bitterness of family secrets and the poetry of love. It has been a long time since we have seen the audience overwhelmed with the tempestuous swell and the exquisite agonies of melodrama! Guadagnino depicts with stunning sensuality the shattering and self-revelation of a rich Milanese family.
Set in snowy Milan, the director introduces the characters during a dinner party. Guadagnino establishes the web of an extended patriarchal family living in the very shiny and lush Milanese bourgeoisie. The head of the household decides that it will be his son Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) and his grand son Edo (Flavio Parenti) who will own the family business. As soon as the whole family is captured on film, the camera dives into the characters’ intimacies, underlining the flaws of a so-called tightly bonded family. Under the thick, lush layer lies the progressive shattering and revolution of the characters.
Emma (Tilda Swinton), Tancredi’s wife, is the one who takes care of the machine running the whole house. Emma is a Russian woman who abandoned her identity to come and live in Italy with Tancredi. At the beginning of the film she is somewhat absent, aloof, she is the polished diamond of the family but when she meets Edo’s friend Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini) her fate begins to to change. In the meantime, Elisabetta (Alba Rohrwacher) rebels against the family’s conservatism and discovers that she has found love with women, while Edo confronts the capitalistic and globalised market to protect the tradition of the family’s business.
Tilda Swinton’s astonishing performance gives the film a very elegant touch. The film is a spring of sensual pleasure. The fluidity of her figure emphasizes the bitterness of her situation, swinging between the tragedy of her family and the intensity of her love for Antonio. Guadagnino succeeds in arousing our senses in an impressive way: the food, the beautiful Italian landscapes, the colours and Emma’s revelation. Film lovers might also find references to Hitchcock and Visconti in the narrative of the film.
What is love? In this case, it might be the revelation of oneself and the celebration of truth. I Am Love depicts an amazing Italian tapestry amongst which a family is torn apart to find their true identity.
Set in snowy Milan, the director introduces the characters during a dinner party. Guadagnino establishes the web of an extended patriarchal family living in the very shiny and lush Milanese bourgeoisie. The head of the household decides that it will be his son Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) and his grand son Edo (Flavio Parenti) who will own the family business. As soon as the whole family is captured on film, the camera dives into the characters’ intimacies, underlining the flaws of a so-called tightly bonded family. Under the thick, lush layer lies the progressive shattering and revolution of the characters.
Emma (Tilda Swinton), Tancredi’s wife, is the one who takes care of the machine running the whole house. Emma is a Russian woman who abandoned her identity to come and live in Italy with Tancredi. At the beginning of the film she is somewhat absent, aloof, she is the polished diamond of the family but when she meets Edo’s friend Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini) her fate begins to to change. In the meantime, Elisabetta (Alba Rohrwacher) rebels against the family’s conservatism and discovers that she has found love with women, while Edo confronts the capitalistic and globalised market to protect the tradition of the family’s business.
Tilda Swinton’s astonishing performance gives the film a very elegant touch. The film is a spring of sensual pleasure. The fluidity of her figure emphasizes the bitterness of her situation, swinging between the tragedy of her family and the intensity of her love for Antonio. Guadagnino succeeds in arousing our senses in an impressive way: the food, the beautiful Italian landscapes, the colours and Emma’s revelation. Film lovers might also find references to Hitchcock and Visconti in the narrative of the film.
What is love? In this case, it might be the revelation of oneself and the celebration of truth. I Am Love depicts an amazing Italian tapestry amongst which a family is torn apart to find their true identity.