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Delia works as a graphic artist. On the day of her birthday
she receives a series of worryingly bizarre telephone calls
from her mother, Amalia, who is found dead the next day, washed
up in the bay. With Amalia having apparently committed suicide,
her daughter Delia embarks on a journey to understand why
her mother would do such a thing. Through encounters, with
her mother's lover and her own father, Delia must face the
truth of her relationship with her mother and how her own
childhood lie brought devastating consequences...
L'Amore
Molesto (1995) was directed by Mario Martone and adapted
by Martone and Elena Ferrante, from Ferrante's original novel.
The film won three David Donatello Awards for best director,
best actress and best supporting actress and was nominated
for a Golden Palm for best director. It also won a best actress
award for Anna Bonaiuto from the Italian National Syndicate
of Film Journalists. So that there is no misunderstanding
"L'amore Molesto" translates as "troublesome
love" and nothing more dubious than that.
The
film is usually considered to be a thriller, though in reality
it has more elements of a psychodrama, with more than a nod
to Hitchcock. Of course, Delia's central conceit that she
is investigating what looks like her mother's murder is really
an investigation into her own relationship with her. Delia,
although initially portrayed as the loving victim, quickly
has to come to terms with the fact that she did not like her
mother. She goes to great lengths not to resemble her and
following her death, when she finds that her seventy year
old mother has red sexy underwear, she is physically sick
at the thought.
In her journey through Naples and her mother's life Delia
is surrounded by the omnipresent city, which is, itself, a
character in the movie. Its noise and oppressive architecture
leaves little time for rest or contemplation. Anna Bonaiuto
plays Delia with utter conviction and I have to admit to being
riveted by the film from start to finish.
The movie is presented in two time frames with wonderful sepia
like flashbacks that, along with the contemporary story, slowly
brings Delia nearer to the truth about her mother's, and her
own, life. The scars of the physical and implied sexual abuse
of her mother, by her father, with the complicity of other
family members, who would then go on to paint her as beautiful,
run deep in Delia. In the end it is these formative years
that she has to accept have defined her as a woman. In many
ways Delia has been running from the notion that she is just
as flawed as her mother.
The film is presented in 4:3 letterbox, with a nice clean
print. Audio is stereo, Italian with the option of English
subtitles.
This
is a gripping film of one woman's journey to self enlightenment
and at this price it's a steal.
Charles
Packer
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