“A film is – or should be – more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what’s behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.” -Stanley Kubrick
I finally got to see the film, I am Love tonight. It was a story of the emotional and sexual awakening of a middle-aged woman with her adult son’s friend and was at once exhilarating and alarming. The plot created unforgettable consequences for her and the entire family. The film’s movement happened with little dialogue and moving intense music. We learned who the characters were by what they did, not what was said.
Even if the plot slips from my mind over time, I know I will never forget the love scene, which was a blur of nature, color, light, skin and motion. The lines and shapes of lovemaking, its crescendo and depth were mirrored by the action of nature. Soft movement of tall grass, insects pollinating, flowers opening, limbs finding limbs. Soft shots of kisses, human and natural building into what orgasm feels like as it happens. Something is playing around you and then the space between around and in gets fuzzy until you are more and more deeply falling into the electrifying experience of becoming part of everything.
How director, Luca Guadagnino, managed the film and editing of this piece of art is hard to explain, except that he is Italian and if Italy is home to anything more than exquisite food, it is love. Actually the metaphor for food as an awakener runs deeply through the plot of the film. We know the truth about our relationships through the food, and the food in this film is literally mouth watering. In fact there is no distance between love and nourishing through food in I am Love… Famed Milan chef Carlo Cracco who prepared the food for the film said, “Cooking is above all communication, because it is where the magic of interchange may take place that ties people together and unites them.”
The formal, elaborate meals that the wealthy family indulges in are felt in distance. The scenes of intimate food preparation and the hand offering tastes of lovingly prepared morsels needs no further dialogue. In fact the little dialogue in love and in distance that is uttered is hollow next to the music that precedes and follows. See the film if only to be overcome by the orgasmic moments in body and nature.
