I Am Love

**Despite Swinton's powerful performance, Luca Guadagnino proved it a mistake to put narrative at the service of technique.** What is the origin and focal point of cinematographic art? It's a question that seems rhetorical, but which, for me, is fundamental to understanding the problems of this film. Why? Because for me, the essential point of cinema, what is most important, is to tell a story. This means that aesthetics, style and art must serve the narrative, not the other way around. And what this film does is, precisely, use a narrative for an exercise in aesthetics and style. The script…

“Emma” (Tilda Swinton) left an ordinary life in Russia to move to Milan where she married local industrialist “Recchi” (Pippo Delbono) and had three kids. She likes the life and it’s privilege, but she’s hardly challenged nor fulfilled. Their daughter “Elisabetta” lives in Nice and two sons “Edo” (Flavio Parenti) and “Gianluca” (Mattie Zachary) are at home with their parents. It’s the former son who has plans to set up a restaurant with his accomplished chef and best friend “Antonio” (Flavio Parenti) and showing a parental interest in her son’s work starts to make “Emma” realise just what…