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I Am Love

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If Guadagnino's describe the movie as a "Desire" and if what it really means is his "Desire", then this one is not for everyone.

Boring. Seriously. Trying to muster up a scintilla of sympathy or even interest for the sadness of the very, very rich was simply beyond me. Who cares about a single one of these spoiled, empty, selfish people? And yes, I include Edo, who'd rather die than live in a world where his mama might have found some happiness. A good score does not make up for bad (excuse me, clichéd) lighting, boring, trite dialog and a message (excuse me, situation) telegraphed in by Western Union. I Am Bubkis. Blech. Two hours of dead brain cells I'll never get back.

I Am Love looks beautiful, that much is obvious. It has some really exquisite cinematography, snippets of pieces of John Adams' music that are used brilliantly, and a fine cast. The story is rather simple and straight-forward but never generic, but the directing of the film is perhaps what makes it really watchable and oddly soothing. Tilda Swinton is fantastic here, peeling off layers of her characters as the film goes on and reminding us of her greatness. This is one of her best performances, and for that I think she didn't get nearly enough notice. The last 5 minutes are amazingly entertaining, and although it could have easily ended on a note of failure, instead it just makes the finish that much more satisfying. Definitely recommended.

Tilda Swinton has said that style really is the most important thing in a film. And no doubt, she's hit the point here. This is Milanese upper-class at its most handsome. They are not only sophisticated, they are really nice to the servants, tolerant about a daughter having a mistress and one of the sons even has bad conscience about this factory workers losing their jobs. It's perfect, until Tilda Swinton falls in love with a cook. The sex scenes fall out of style a little, since there are really too many flowers and insects accompanying the act. And you don't care much, because the time for putting beautiful Milan in paintings is over. Style should really be out of fashion since a couple of centuries.

More than anything else, this film reminds one of the Douglas Sirk melodramas of the fifties. Like those, it has pretensions at seriousness within the format of what is basically a soap-opera. Here even the music is composed by John Adams, a major opera (NOT soap-opera!) composer, and in all fairness his musical score is by far the best thing about "I Am Love". Tilda Swinton, the leading lady, has neither the beauty, nor the sensuality, or at least the glamour and ability to hold her own, required by the role of Emma. One has the constant feeling that she is acting, rather than living this part. Her acting seems to tend to a less than successful imitation of the younger Vanessa Redgrave, and this is very annoying, as it keeps conjuring up in one's mind what that great actress could have made of it all. Hand it to Sirk, his casting of Jane Wyman was much wiser.