La Vita Che Vorrei – The Best Italian Movie They Won’t Let You See

Along with Pane e Tulipani I have watched “La Vita Che Vorrei” (The Life That I Want) waaaaay too many times. I have a huge crush on Luigi LoCascio, who plays Stefano, and that explains some of it. It’s the “story within a story” – the love affair mirrors the love affair in a movie that the characters are starring in and does it in a very clever way.

La Vita Che Vorrei is the second movie that pairs up Luigi and Sandra Ceccarelli; the first, Luce Dei Miei Occhi is available in the US and is also very good. I’ve asked myself a million times – what does it have that La Vita Che Vorrei doesn’t? Why has La Vita Che Vorrei been ignored?

La Vita Che Vorrei is more romantic in some ways and less in others. It’s couple, Stefano and Laura are super flawed – if you knew them in real life you might hate them, but I didn’t. I liked them because the mistakes they make are not all that unlike the ones that I do and I feel a true empathy watching them struggling with their weaknesses and trying to be better people.

Is Stefano a prick? He sure is. In one scene he sleeps with an old girlfriend (booty call, rather) to get even with Laura and the old girlfriend realizes what is going on. She asks him, “When’s my birthday? How many brothers do I have? Do you ever think about me?” It’s a defining moment for Stefano, but he’s honest with her. “No”, he tells her. “I never think of you at all.”

He’s wickedly judgemental and suspicious of Laura, but maybe he should be. Is she a whore? (figuratively if not literally) Yeah, I think she is. When she zeros in on Stefano in the beginning it’s like a cat with it’s prey in that it seems more instinctive than sinister. It’s what she does – she doesn’t know any other way.

So how can this movie about these two bad people be so romantic? I don’t know but it just is. In one of the scenes in which the true emotions of Stefano and Laura come out while they are acting, I am re-smitten with Luigi every time. It just gets me; you know what I mean? He’s got the most expressive eyes I’ve ever seen.

This is one of those couples that Oprah talks about – the kind in which each person has found his absolute worst match, maybe because the universe is trying to teach them something about themselves. In the end, we can only guess, but it seems like they’ve learned. Do I love it because I love Luigi or because it’s a good movie – both. It’s such a good movie and I wish you could all see it.

The Life I Want (2004)
La vita che vorrei
Director: Giuseppe Piccioni
Writers: Linda Ferri (screenplay), Giuseppe Piccioni (screenplay)
Stars: Luigi Lo Cascio, Sandra Ceccarelli

( Here’s the music video for the movie, Amandoti (loving you)

the song goes on to say “Amarti m’affatica” (loving you wears me out) and sometimes it sure does. )