Movie Review of I Am Love lo sono l'amore

Gerald Wright's Movie Coverage

I AM LOVE (lo sono l'amore)

Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
Running time: 120 min.
Release date: June 18, 2010
Genre: Drama in Italian and Russian with English subtitles
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
MPAA Rating: R

I Am Love is a story of the wealthy Recci family in Milan, Italy. The film follows their lives during and after the year 2000. The movie takes on a dual approach to its plot with a sensual love affair between bourgeois characters and a Freudian love affair of food that links these same characters. This exquisite film is shot in a Felliniesque style and captures the marvels of Italy. At the center is Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton (b. Katherine Matilda Swinton).

Emma Recci, played by Tilda Swinton, is a Russian born wife of Tancredi Recci. Emma, like all of the other women in this family, are given the right to what they wish to do with their life. As spouses in a upper class family, it is a necessity to be productive in raising the children, a hobby or a craft. However, the women of the Recci family are repressed and must follow rules. In Emma's case, she finds an outlet in her love for the culinary arts and assisting in the preparation of meals being served in her household.

During the Christmas and millennium setting in Milan, director Luca Guadagnino takes his camera to the landscape of this wintry city with wide upper angle shots. This visual journey is mysterious and hypnotizing, yet in a split moment the camera takes you by surprise and zooms to the human subjects. This style of filmmaking is done in many scenes and offers the viewer an intriguing delivery as far as its characters and plot development.

The camera patiently brings its viewers to a formal birthday party for the ailing patriarch Edoardo Recci, Sr. (Gabriele Ferzetti) who passes his business empire to his son Tancredo (Pippo Delbono), and unexpectedly to his grandson Edoardo a.k.a. Junior (Flavio Parenti), whom everyone loves. Emma is happy for the passing of the torch, but she senses her son Edoardo is not pleased. However, Edoardo has a buddy named Antionio (Edoardo Gabbriellini) who is a fine chef and has plans for a joint venture in opening a restaurant. Edoardo introduces his mother Emma to Antonio, and their love of food escalates to a explicit sensual love with each other. This is when the film suddenly takes on a two dimensional approach with food as a source of symbolism. It would be a spoiler in mentioning any more of the storyline. However, the journey that the plot took was a tasteful trip in playing with the form and language of cinema.

There are various subplots in I Am Love. For example, Emma's artist daughter Elisabetta (Alba Rohrwacher) reveals that she is in love with another woman while away at school in the U. K.; Edoardo, Sr. dies and Tancredo sells the business empire; the matriarch Allegra Recci (Marisa Berenson) has an uneasy relationship with Edoardo's fiancee Eva Ugolini (Diane Fleri); and Emma confides in her maid/head of staff Anita (Chiara Tomarelli) about her desire for passion and freedom.

The nature of this film takes a look at architecture, fashion, sculpture and human relationships. Yet, it keeps the extremely talented Tilda Swinton's character Emma as the centerpiece of every sequence of events. With brilliant performances by an ensemble of captivating talents, I Am Love, proves to be a tremendously well crafted film.

FILM RATING (A-)