Screened as part of NZIFF 2010

I Am Love 2009

Io sono l’amore

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Tilda Swinton in a hyper-stylish drama about a wealthy Milanese clan. “An exquisite, all-enveloping feast of sensual pleasures. It’s almost certainly the most elegant piece of cinema you’ll see this year.” — The Times

Italy In English, Italian and Russian with English subtitles
120 minutes

Director

Producers

Luca Guadagnino
,
Tilda Swinton
,
Alessandro Usai
,
Francesco Melzi d'Eril
,
Marco Morabito
,
Massimiliano Violante

Screenplay

Barbara Alberti
,
Ivan Cotroneo
,
Walter Fasano
,
Luca Guadagnino

Photography

Yorick Le Saux

Editor

Walter Fasano

Production designer

Francesca di Mottola

Costume designer

Antonella Cannarozzi

Music

John Adams

With

Tilda Swinton (Emma Recchi)
,
Flavio Parenti (Edoardo Recchi Jr)
,
Edoardo Gabbriellini (Antonio Biscaglia)
,
Alba Rohrwacher (Elisabetta Recchi)
,
Pippo Delbono (Tancredi Recchi)
,
Maria Paiato (Ida Marangon)
,
Diane Fleri (Eva Ugolini)
,
Waris Ahluwalia (Mr Kubelkian)
,
Gabriele Ferzetti (Edoardo Recchi Sr)
,
Marisa Berenson (Allegra Recchi)

Festivals

Venice, Toronto 2009; Sundance, New Directors/New Films 2010

Elsewhere

“Watching this lush, operatic Italian drama about a clannish family of wealthy Milanese industrialists is like suddenly being exposed to a full orchestra when you have become accustomed to listening to the plaintive sawing of a lone violinist. It’s an exquisite, all-enveloping feast of sensual pleasures. It’s almost certainly the most elegant piece of cinema you’ll see this year. It is melodrama as celebration rather than as guilty pleasure…
Tilda Swinton is magnificent as Emma Recchi, the Russian-born wife of the heir to the Recchi business, Tancredi… Initially we don’t even realise that Swinton’s character is the centre of the story. Reserved, somewhat aloof, she seems to be just another polished, precious gem in the Recchi collection. But a fateful encounter with a handsome young chef and his sublime cooking gradually awakens the young girl who has been dormant since Emma left Russia to be Tancredi’s wife… [Director Luca] Guadagnino references both Visconti and Hitchcock as the saga unfolds, but his voice is original and his vision utterly compelling.” — Wendy Ide, The Times

“Tilda Swinton is ridiculously enjoyable to watch… dressed in colours you want to drink, and exploring her puzzled, porcelain allure in ways that make the screen fairly quiver… It’s a sensational performance, but the excitements of this pulse-quickening, exotic bird of a film… neither begin nor end there.” — Tim Robey, The Telegraph

“A deeply serious film, and a seriously political one, but it’s also playful, flamboyant and visually magnificent – a subtly but richly flavoured tonic for the jaded cinephile palate.” — Jonathan Romney, Independent on Sunday