Maria Sole Tognazzi’s film is Italy’s first with lesbian protagonists.
It’s part of the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema series at Lincoln Center.
Thursday, June 2, 6:00pm (Q&A with Maria Sole Tognazzi)
Tuesday, June 7, 1:30pm
Marina and Federica (Sabrina Ferilli and Margherita Buy) are practically an old married couple, together for five years, bickering about the cat on the couch, wondering what to have for dinner, and fussing about each others’ health and safety.
Not so different from watching a movie about the life I share with my husband, and that would make a pretty boring movie. So was this story about two women in a committed monogamous (in theory) relationship boring, or was it interesting with the same-sex twist, or would have been interesting even with a heterosexual couple?
Marina is a former B list actress that’s gotten bored with her career and has bought a restaurant, out of the closet at a young age and comfortable in her own skin. Federica, in contrast has lived most of her life in heterosexual relationships, an architect with an ex-husband and a grown son. “I’m not a lesbian”, she tells Marina, and the disdainful accent on the word lesbian is obvious. “You are the first woman I was ever attracted to.”
When a magazine article about Marina comes out that hints about their relationship (one that they don’t try to hide in their day-to-day life, by the way), and then Marina gets offered a part in a movie and Federica thinks, “Oh no! More publicity!”, their happy homelife gets a little icy. I haven’t decided yet whether Federica really does love her privacy, and that’s why she’s freaking out, or if she’s just not gay, and doesn’t want to be identified that way. Throughout the movie it’s never obvious which team she’ll end up playing for, and I have the feeling that the one she’s on at the end of the movie is not the end of the story.
Thursday, June 2, 6:00pm (Q&A with Maria Sole Tognazzi)
Tuesday, June 7, 1:30pm
I Love Italian Everything 