It has been 37 years since a film by Nanni Moretti premiered on the Lido. Since then, the Roman director has always been in the Cannes competition, reportedly because his films were never ready in time for the summer. Now, then, the prodigal son has returned to Venice, where he was celebrated by both the audience and the press as if he were playing on home turf. Moretti, who can sometimes come across as rather grim at his press conferences, seemed remarkably relaxed and cheerful. Perhaps it is the serenity of old age that is also reflected in his new film. “Succederá questa notte” (It Will Happen Tonight), an adaptation of three short stories by the Israeli author Eshkol Nevo, is a romantic love story.
The film begins in Oslo. Thea (Melina Akerman Kvie) is pregnant by Matteo (Louis Garrel, speaking perfect Italian). They both want to move to Rome, but when Matteo’s mother questions whether nineteen-year-old Thea is capable of being a mother, she calls off the trip at the airport. Seven years later, Matteo has a magical encounter on a tennis court with a woman in a wedding dress (Jasmine Trinca), who leaves him no chance when they exchange balls. Another seven years pass before he happens to see her again in a café. And she becomes a romantic obsession for him.
Matteo is married to his father’s doctor, whilst Greta has three children with the successful businessman Federico (Antonio De Matteo). Both keep their passion a secret, and it takes another leap in time before the film allows them to find a way out of their entanglements. The character of the father (Hippolyte Girardot) – a notorious womaniser who is thrilled whenever he meets a new woman and explains to his son that Viagra can only be compared to the invention of the electric guitar – contributes greatly to the film’s humour.
Nanni Moretti himself makes only a brief appearance as Greta’s father; *Succederá questa notte* feels less self-indulgent than some of his earlier films, which he wrote himself. “At some point, the time came when I wanted to work with screenwriters,” Moretti said at the press conference, “with a solid script to rely on”. Twenty-seven years ago, he had spotted the then 16-year-old Jasmine Trinca at a casting for *My Son’s Room* in a school. She has since become a major star of Italian cinema. “There’s something radiant about Jasmine when she appears on screen,” commented Moretti. You watch her with fascinated attention; she carries the film with ease and passion.
Fading Echo
Passion is also at the heart of “Echo Chamber”, the new film by the Italian-American director Andrea Pallaoro. At the age of 16, Pallaoro moved to the USA, where he studied film and still lives today. Luca Marinelli plays the music producer Leonardo, who is working on a new album with the singer Ava (Susan Sarandon) in a spacious London flat. Marianne Faithful, who celebrated a successful comeback in her later years with ‘Broken English’, may have been the inspiration.
Looking for a physiotherapist to treat his slipped disc, Leonardo meets Ave, played by the Swedish actress Alicia Vikander. They’re actually a perfect match, but even after an hour of the film, when asked if she’s in a relationship with Leonardo, Ave replies that she doesn’t know. And so it goes on throughout the entire film. The echo of their love threatens to fade away in the echo chamber of his posh flat. Thanks to a highly melodramatic twist, they finally get together in the final act.
This “Echo Chamber” promises more than it can deliver. Luca Marinelli and Alicia Vikander are a pleasure to watch, but the story doesn’t give them much space to play with. It was the last screenplay that Bernardo Bertolucci (together with two other writers) wrote before his death in 2018. The successful music producer is reminiscent of the director who, in his younger years, became an internationally acclaimed star director with *Il conformista* (The Conformist, 1970). The severe back pain, on the other hand, brings to mind Bertolucci in his later years, who spent his final years in a wheelchair following several unsuccessful operations.
The Devil is a Woman
Jasmine Trinca also stars in another Italian film, *L’estranea* (The Spiral) by Paolo Strippoli. ‘You’re gorgeous,’ her husband tells her. And you immediately find yourself agreeing with him. Jasmine Trinca plays Anna, the mother of a picture-perfect family, who lives with her two children in an elegant villa in Bari. Her husband Walter (Adriano Giannini) is a well-to-do businessman. She used to dream of a career as an actress and secures her daughter Alice a role in a Barilla advert.
But before that can happen, fate strikes mercilessly. The family dog severely injures Alice’s leg, which is due to be amputated. When the distraught mother seeks refuge in the hospital chapel, a mysterious woman (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) approaches her and offers a Faustian bargain. Alice’s leg can be saved if Anna sacrifices her son in return. Tobia (Andrea Genovese) has a promising career as a footballer ahead of him, but due to a metabolic disorder, he becomes hopelessly obese while still a teenager. When he suffers a heart attack, the devilish woman offers to save him this time. In return, however, Anna must sacrifice her husband. But that is not the end of the diabolical entanglements.
In *Variety*, Guy Lodge described the director Paolo Strippoli, who also co-wrote the screenplay, as “Italy’s new horror virtuoso”. The film opens with Anna, now older, visiting Alice (Romana Maggiora Vergano) in Rome. Outside, torrential rain is falling whilst Anna tells her daughter the ‘true’ story of the family. Jasmine Trinca, showing great courage in embracing ugliness, is brilliant as the ambition-driven mother who sees herself at the centre of all the family’s disasters. Strippoli uses dramatic effects and an overwhelming soundtrack to great effect. One cannot help but admire the dramatic twists and the sophistication of the direction in “L’estranea”, and by the end there can be no doubt: the devil is a woman!