A Beautiful Summer, Laura Luchetti’s film review

Already at the time twin flowerwe retired in 2019 Laura Luchetti working on a story – as she described it – “very beautiful, something you want to respect because it is based on an Italian novel”For example, based on the 1940 novel Caesar Pavese which these days arrives in our cinemas, first in Rome – with preview series in the cinemas of Giulio Cesare, Greenwich and Quattro Fontane and later throughout Italy from August 24distributed by Lucky Red. beautiful summer is, in his own words, “The story of a virgin that defends itself” in which the young Yile Yara Vianello (Heavenly body) And Virgin Cassel daughter Monica Bellucci AND Vincent Cassel these are two faces of femininity, which acts as an absolute protagonist, with their fears and an irresistible desire for freedom.

Beautiful summer Yile Yara Vianello

Turin, 1938 Ginia (la Vianello), who has just moved to the city from the countryside, it seems that the future in the capital of Piedmont offers endless possibilities. Torn between working in a fashion studio and living in the same house with her wary worker brother, she, like all girls her age, dreams of falling in love. Possibly about a young artist he knows during his visit to the Turin piu. Bohemian, the environment in which Amelia takes her (Virgin Cassel), a little older than her, but much more sensual and provocative. The girl is different from all the people that Ginia has ever known in her life and is ready to shake her confidence. Torn between a sense of duty and the discovery of a desire that confuses her, Genia is overwhelmed by emotions she doesn’t know or dare to name. Until at the end of a “beautiful” and amazing summer, she finally gives in to her feelings, celebrating the courage to be herself.

Modern woman in Turin of the last century

Starting over with Pavese is always a good choice, and such a director Laura Luchetti it definitely lacks the delicacy needed to make the story, set in the run-up to World War II, easily understandable and accessible even to a younger and more modern audience not very keen on the adaptation itself. On the other hand, it will not be difficult to see each other again in this story. “free” girl in search of identity

and the road, eager to fall in love, but ready to make mistakes and learn and empathize with her.

Thanks to the wonderful interpretation of Vianello, well supported by the aforementioned new daughter of art (soon in the series leopard and who claims to have never seen the films of Mama Bellucci and Papa Vincent), but above all to a direction as attentive to detail as capable of the distance between them. between different stages and contextsmanaging breaks and caesuras well, respecting his characters, the environment in which they move, and extraordinary formal purity.

Perhaps too much, because sometimes one gets the impression that the disorientation of a young woman who has just arrived from the countryside is a struggle with the city, men, conventions and art, as well as with new desires and opportunities, even for women, for which it seemed one cannot even dream – too glossy and that psychological excavations remain rather didactic, perhaps due to literary origin, a little exploited opportunity.

A historical drama under the guise of seamstresses and workers from a documentary about this small ancient world becomes the story of a special relationship in which Amelia and Ginia discover each other as victims of prevailing sexism and traditional roles. Through tears and rudeness, always taking risks, in a play of symmetries and an alternation of points of view that goes beyond the most obvious elegy of innocence. The look of another, and not the artist, and the example – sometimes positive, sometimes negative – create an opportunity for awareness and self-expression, in which many modern viewers will find what excites them.