Io Sono L'Amore (or I am Love) is director Luca Guadagnino and leading actor Tilda Swinton's opus; it took 11 years to develop and shoot the project. The film follows the radical change and deterioration of an Italian upper class family called the Recchi's. At the beginning of the film, the grandfather and head of the family announces his retirement (due to a terminal illness) and leaves the family textile company and factory in the hands of his son Tancredi and grandson Edoardo Recchi. This decision instantly leads to a schism in the family; Tancredi is interested in progress and moving forward with the company through selling while Edoardo insists on keeping with the tradition of his grandfather and maintaining ties with the past. Throughout the film, Edoardo is unable to cope with the impending change occurring in this family; he senses the end of an era. The film itself manages to capture this loss beautifully. Beneath the perfect surface of this family lies the internal conflict of the past and future within these characters. Of course, I am Love is not just about death and destruction. As the title suggests, love has something to say. The film is about more than just loss and death. With the end of an era comes the start of another one; I am Love is about rebirth. The question is...what's love got to do with it?
With Love by. Sudarsham Vijayaraghavam (creative commons)
In an interview pubished by The Guardian, Guadagnino and Swinton discuss their own perspectives and ideas on love and loneliness and how they are reflected in I am Love. In the interview, Swinton states "I think the deal is that you are fully lonely, and the sooner we accept and embrace our loneliness, the healthier we are. Real love has nothing to do with that romantic idea of oneness, of distracting and healing each other from our loneliness. It's about witnessing each other as individuals and saying: I'll show you mine if you show me yours,". I am Love is born from this ideal and the characters in the film come to terms with this as the film progresses. We see love occcur in the story through the main character Emma Recchi's love affair with her son Edoardo's best friend Antonio. This ideal is perfectly captured through Guadagnino's direction and gorgeous vision.
The stunning and statuesque Tilda Swinton in the film Orlando (1993) Guadagnino's muse for Io Sono L'amore (2009) (creative commons)
Emma Recchi (played brilliantly by Swinton) is the perfect example of loneliness; her solitude is made apparent through her family life as well as through the environment she inhabits. Emma was "discovered" by an Italian art collector named Tancredi in Russia (her home country). Tancredi traveled to Russia to find his latest masterpiece and instead found Emma. After meeting, the two married and he brought her back to Italy; she hasn't returned to Russia since. Emma talks about how when she arrived in Italy, she had to learn to become Italian which meant dropping everything about her past. Her husband has given her all she has; the beautiful home she lives in, her family. He as even given Emma her Italian name; at one point she realizes she doesn't even know what her real name is anymore, only remembering the nickname "Kitiesh". The only things that define her are the objects that she owns and the environment that surrounds her. Emma Recchi is always perfectly put together. She lives in a beautiful but museum-like house, huge and full of things but emotionally empty. She has everything she would ever need and more, and yet she's in a cage. Throughout the film, Emma's image is constantly juxtaposed with art (especially with the architecture of Milan). Tall, gray, statuesque, and cold; Emma is nothing but a work of art herself, something to be looked at but never touched. She is the perfect trophy wife, beautiful and intelligent. But despite all of the things she owns, she's completely lifeless, she's set in stone just like the statues that Guadagnino compares her with. She is not her own person, she is defined by all of these objects and material things. She is lonely.
Costars Edoardo Gabbriellini (Antonio) and Tilda Swinton (Emma): lovers in Io Sono L'amore (2009) (creative commons)
No one really knows Emma, and at times she doesn't even know herself. It isn't until she meets Antonio that she is able to freely exist and just be herself. There is one scene in particular that really exemplifies this as well as Swinton's ideals about love being about experiencing another person and seeing them as an individual. The first time Emma and Anotnio get together and make love, Antonio begins sheding off Emma's clothes. One by one, Antonio removes all of the beautiful objects that define her; her pearl necklace, her wedding ring, her expensive Italian clothes. A shot reveals a pile of the objects that decorated her strewn on the floor. Emma stands there completely nude, she is exposed and yet she seems to be completely comfortable and natural. Now that she has done away with the materiality, she can finally just exist and be herself. The two lay on the floor side by side simply experiencing each other's presence, "witnessing" one another. It is at the moment that Emma begins revealing things about herself and her life before she became a Recchi. Her individuality is finally revealed. After Antonio and Emma's affair begin, Guadagnino begins juxtaposing her image with gorgeous shots of nature. We understand through the editing and juxtaposition of images that Emma has been reborn and is now her natural self. Antonio and Emma's relationship exemplifies Swinton and Guadagnino's ideals about love; Antonio and Emma aren't interested in the future, they are taking it one moment at a time. And in this moment, they are simply being. For them, this is what love is.
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