aka LE CONSEQUENZE DELL’AMORE
Movie Review by Alice Castle
Starring: Toni Servillo, Olivia Magnani, Adriana Giannini, Raffaele Pisu
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Stylish as a two-hour long advertisement for Armani Classics, director and writer Paolo Sorrentino tells the story of Titta di Girolamo (Toni Servillo), a middle-aged Italian exile living in a lake resort in the southern region of Switzerland. As a permanent resident of an unremarkable central European town-house hotel, Titta leads a quiet and unremarkable existence – every day following the same pattern as the one that came before it. The highlights of his life seem to be selecting the right tie for the right shirt and playing cards with fellow hotel residents. Despite his seemingly dull routine, naturally, Titta is not all he seems. And if you’ve ever been suspicious about people who choose to live in anonymous hotels, you’d be sniffing down the right track with regards to Senor Titta.
The story unfolds slowly – much too slowly. Though it is never clearly explained, the elegantly dressed Italian from the south has been exiled to this soulless lake town because of a financial mistake he made as a mafia banker. Spared the punishment Godfather fans might be anticipating, Titta has been holed up in the hotel without access to his wife and children for eight years of isolation – a lifelong punishment for his misdeeds. When he finally lets his guard down and begins to let down his guard with the unlikely object of his affections, Sofia, the barmaid at the hotel bar, Titta at last seems to be regaining some feeling for life.
Slow but very smooth.
