Anyone surprised that I haven’t mentioned a Luigi Lo Cascio movie yet? (I know I am). He is il mio preferito – my favorite, and I love all of his films. The one that I’ve watched 1,000 times is one that isn’t available for US DVD players, La Vita Che Vorrei, and many people might have chosen La Meglio Gioventù, but I’m going to go with Giuseppe Piccioni‘s (directed Giulia Non Esce La Sera) 2001 Luce Dei Miei Occhi – Light Of My Eyes.
Luce Dei Miei Occhi is a bittersweet, almost tragic story about love – I hesitate to call it a love story. Lo Cascio plays Antonio, a lonely introvert who meets and falls for single mother Maria, played by Sandra Ceccarelli. She, like him, has been marginalized from society, but he misreads the reason for her loneliness. He’d do, literally, anything for her, even when she tells him:
Ma se sei tu che mi stai sempre intorno… non impazzisco di gioia quando ti vedo, non mi batte il cuore, non mi sento perduta quando te ne vai… è così… non è colpa mia. — But if you’re always around…I don’t go crazy with joy when I see you, my heart doesn’t beat faster, I don’t feel lost when you go away. That’s how it is…it’s not my fault.
I have a big crush on Luigi Lo Cascio, so maybe I’m not the best judge, but I think that movies like this made me crazy about him. He’s so expressive, so beautifully melancholy. I ached for Antonio in this movie. And Maria; she’s bad but not in a one-dimensional way. She’s a sympathetic character even with her flaws.
Read what I wrote about it HERE.
I Love Italian Everything 