Rome in Rome Review

It has been a long time since I saw an LGBT film. Somehow I choose this one tonight.

What struck me immediately in the film was the sound track. Especially the song “Loving Strangers”.

To say the truth the film left me baffled and confused for the first hour or so. I am not saying that I didn't like the shots of women making love to each other (far from it) or they being naked pratically all the duration of the film.

I just kept trying to understand the meaning, the message behind all the beauty pictured in the film, represented not only by women making love as if their very life depended on such act but also fairylike skylines of Rome and a room that felt like a museum of fine arts more than a room in a hotel. It was all majestically opulent and baroque as only Rome can be. And what to say about the waiter that sings operetta....

And the song Loving Strangers kept coming back...Maybe we all “fall in love” in fantasy or reality with a stranger imagining that our lives would be completely different. That perfectness is just a second away from being true. That the solution for all of our problems are there in that stranger we are loving with all the strength that everyday difficulties can generate.

Loving Strangers...toying with the idea that somehow life can just for a night be different....and can it be all as simple as that, with no consequences whatsoever?

Saturn In Opposition / Saturno Contro

Yesterday evening I finally saw the film “Saturn In Opposition” by Ferzan Ozpetek. A simple straight forward film that deals with what happens during the unexpected illness and eventual death of a companion in a gay couple.

The beauty in this film lays in its simplicity in describing an actual everyday situation in modern day Italy where civil unions are still a dream and a political issue no one dares to take over.
A voice that needs not to yell but just to portray living in a society where same sex love is not considered at all. Where such love is still considered as something sinful to be washed out.

Grand cast, stirring emotions.

Ieri finalmente ho visto il film “Saturno Contro” di Ferzan Ozpetek. Un film semplice e diretto che affronta la tematica di cosa succede quando una malattia inaspettata e eventualmente la morte colpisce una coppia gay.

La bellezza di questo film è nella sua linearità nel descrivere una situazione attuale nella società Italiana del nostro tempo, dove le unioni civili sono ancora una chimera e un tema politico che nessuno osa portare avanti.

Una voce che non ha bisogno di urlare ma naturalmente ritrarre il vivere in una società dove l’amore fra coppie dello stesso sesso non è per niente considerato. Dove tale amore è visto ancora come un peccato da lavare via.

Un cast eccezionale, toccanti emozioni.