Having just yesterday written that it’s the Americans who use sexual tension and characters that take a long time to realize their love for each other in movies, today I eat my words, having remembered “Dieci Inverni
I saw “Dieci Inverni” at a theater in MIlan last January and liked it so much I went back to see it again before I came home. It’s the story of Camilla (Isabella Ragonese) and Silvestro (Michele Riondino) who meet when Camilla comes to Venice to study Russian literature. She’s a studious loner and he’s a goofy, immature kid and they like each other but at first are too different to be anything but friends.
It’s called 10 Winters and it’s just that, their winters. Whatever happens to Camilla and Silvestro during the spring, summer and fall, we can’t know for sure. So when during one winter they’ve had a terrible falling out and you think it’s over for them and it cuts to the following winter, you’re left to fill in the gaps, decide for yourself how they’ve patched things up and are friends again.
It’s got that old “star crossed lover” theatrical device – the couple seems to be meant for each other but fate has it in for them and they are never in love with each other at the same time. I usually hate that. But in this movie it’s a more natural course of events because it shows so beautifully how life goes on and situations beyond our control effect what becomes of us. In other romantic movies where the two lovers are out of sync you get the feeling that they are supposed to be together and that they aren’t because the planets just haven’t lined up perfectly yet. There’s usually a conniving third party who wants one of them for him or herself, or a parent that doesn’t like the match. But in this movie it’s really nobody’s fault. No matter what Camilla and Silvestro were thinking, I don’t believe that they were right for each other during those 10 years. I think that if they’d managed to get it together during winter 5, for example,it would have been a disaster for both of them.
I liked filling in the gaps. I liked concentrating on the cold months when things are quieter and there are less distractions. I liked the surprises that came from rejoining the story after the gaps.
Director Valerio Mieli will be in San Francisco to present this movie in person in November so I’d look for it at Italian film festivals around the country – and I’m betting that this one will be released on DVD for the US. Mieli, who is only 32, won the 2010 David di Donatello award for best new director for Dieci Inverni.
I Love Italian Everything 