Io Sono l'Amore

... or I Am Love, is the title of an Italian film directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Tilda Swinton.  I fist became intrigued Swinton's performance in the movie Orlando.  (Those of you who have read my previous blog entries, know that Orlando the book written by Virginia Woolf, and the main character were based on the life of Vita Sackville-West.) Here is another performance in which Ms. Swinton does not disappoint.

I first read about this movie about a year ago in a magazine, and the article focused on the production that was taking place during that time in Milan, Italy.  Of course, having lived there, I was obsessed with wanting to see it, but knew it would not be out in theaters for a long time.  So, as I was walking along Columbus Avenue in Manhattan the other day, nearing Lincoln Center, I saw the Lincoln Center Theater Cinema box office, and in efforts to escape the 90+ degree heat, I told myself I would see the next film no matter what it was. As luck would have it, the next film was I Am Love.  Almost overlooking it (I was not in the mood for some cheesy romance) I almost looked for the next one, but read that Swinton was the actor, and like a flood, the memory rushed back - MILAN!)  I bought my ticket, and entered the theater.  I had no idea what I was in for. 
I did not remember much about what I had read about the film, other than it takes place in Milan.
Here was a film for me.  The connection of food and Italy intertwined with passion .. my understanding of all three, the need for all three to play a prominent role in my life cut to my very core.  I think this is why I am drawn back to the city of Milan, and I think that's why I have a special connection to this film.  I read one review of this film that ripped it apart for including an uncomfortably long love-making scene between the two primary characters.  To me that scene was necessary, especially after the snowy gray slushy opening scenes of the film, depicting the city of Milan, and her life in just the same way.  To show the release of this woman's breaking away from her stale cold meticulous life, this spring time love making in the grass was beautifully composed, and not gratuitous in my view.    The two lovers intertwined in the grass, bees all around pollinating flowers, the warmth of the sun on their skin; these images become symbols of what is not only natural, but necessary.  As I watched, I was reminded of  Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and Lawrence's Lady Chatterly all at once.  Both novels include a climax that is sexual in nature, a symbolic breaking away from societal expectations, driven by a passion, albeit lust,  even they could not understand.  In the case of Emma in I Am Love,  it is cultural repression that she holds back.  In one scene, she explains to her lover how her Italian husband "rescues" her from her Russian life of poverty.  I could not help but feel a little door had been opened to understanding her need to escape that much more.  
Then film is beautifully shot, and shocking in its twists and turns.  I highly recommend it to every woman I know, but also for anyone who wants to understand why women are the way they are, and just how much they are willing to sacrifice for various reasons.  I also recommend it for men, so that they may consider their role, and a woman's role, if only to understand the complexity of women that much more.  To understand that sex is more that romance for women, it can be a powerful symbolic act that indeed can be passionate, comforting,  freeing.  It can be the means toward self-realization, while I think for men, it is the end.  Powerful.