Körper der Liebe

Writer/director Matteo Garrone has created in PRIMO AMORE yet another atmospheric film (not unlike 'L'Imbalsamatore') that deftly explores the dark side of human interactions and motivations. His style is Gothic in nature but with a contemporary setting manipulated with quirky camera work and artistically designed sets that give the viewer the feeling of watching an experiment in a laboratory, the characters all being bounded by cage-like visual devices. Yes, this is film noir, but Garrone develops his bizarre characters so well that we grow along with their transformations into the icons they become.

Vittorio (Vitaliano Trevisan) is a goldsmith who exists on the modest, long-held family business of creating jewelry from molten gold in the ancient manner. We first meet him looking through the grid of a train station where he awaits Sonia (Michela Cescon), a young girl who has answered his classified ad for a date. They meet, Sonia is pleased, but Vittorio tells her right away that he expected her to be thinner. Sonia offers to return to her home out of town, a garden home she shares with her robust brother (Roberto Comacchio), but Vittorio decides he wants to try the date. They have a little courtship and all seems to go well until Vittorio begins to suggest that Sonia lose weight. They move into a nice home ('the site of Romeo and Juliet' the realtor boasts) and their coexistence begins.

Vittorio is confronted with the needs of his business expanding stimulated by an offer to partner his business from an entrepreneur who insists Vittorio make only heavy bracelets and substantial jewelry in response to what the public is buying: Vittorio has always preferred the tiny, thin, light weight delicate carvings of beauty rather than the bulkier profitable items. The decision causes Vittorio's two old workers to leave him and Vittorio is depressed.

As Sonia complies with Vittorio's ongoing obsession for her to be thin, Sonia's friends and brother tell her to beware of the strange demands of Vittorio, and despite Sonia's hunger for food, her hunger for being loved is greater and she slowly moves toward anorexia. Eventually in the solitary confinement of their home the two come into conflict and the result is a tragedy few would see coming.

The layers of meaning are deep: Vittorio's passion for the thin, delicate gold objects he creates as being things of true beauty are mirrored by his obsession for Sonia to be like those objects. Sonia works as a model for an art school and as she watches the students' works alter her once nubile body to a dwindling form, she feels terrified that she will waste away. Yet her need to not be rejected by Vittorio keeps her starving her body rather than her heart. Throughout this downward spiral of physical vs emotional attraction Garrone frames the scenes in increasingly complex grids, confining the story every more tightly until the ultimate rupture.

The acting is excellent and the combination of scene design and cinematography make this a dark but intensely interesting film experiment. It may not be a movie for everyone, but for those who appreciate avante garde stories and cinematic treatment, this is a film to study. Grady Harp

I have not seen this director's work before, but will now watch out for it. This film is best watched in reflective silence, to allow the characters to sink in. It asks many questions: how far are we willing to go for love? How can we transform ourselves into ideals without losing our self.. How can we reconcile the cruels hooks of the body with the splendors of the mind? Goldsmith Vittorio obsesses with form, over the essence of things, and finds in his willing, sensual girlfriend Sonia the clay to shape into his idealized form. She sacrifices her cupcakes and cookies to the altar of love, but the desire to find perfection can become the first brush of an abusive spiral.. This is is not a date movie. A movie that leaves the taste of ashes, and yet one that you'll remember.

Somewhat based on real events, this movies is a dark tale about the need for control. The plot is very simple: a man, obsessed with the idea of having an extremely thin woman to own entirely, targets a somewhat fragile and lonely girl to make her "perfect". The most disturbing thing is how realistic the movie is, it could be a clinical textbook: the gaslighting, manipulation and love bombing, all the tricks someone can use to brainwash a partner. There's an impending sense of doom and anxiety as the relationship progresses and the man's mask slips to reveal his true face, the one of a narcissist who want to play God.

Italian director Matteo Garrone ("The Embalmer") has quickly established himself as a connoisseur of dark dramas that are almost as distressing to watch as they are interesting. However, this dark romance features an amazing performance by Michela Cescon as "Sonia' who (not unlike Christian Bale in "The Machinist") is forced to lose a great deal of body weight during the course of the film\ The symbolic implications of this story are known all-too-well by women around the world who diet, diet, diet to please the men they love. Not to mention the fact that all of the media outlets continually express the idea that 'thin is in'. But how does one know when they are too thin, and when their own self-preservation is at stake.

The problem for Sonia is that Vittorio (Vitaliano Trevisan), the man she is smitten with, has asked her to commit to a program of extreme weight loss so that she will conform to his idea of 'purity'. As a goldsmith it is his profession to burn away excess metal in order to yield gold in pure quantities. But it's his obsessiveness with all things being thin (and pure) that eventually causes him to lose his business and quite a bit of his sanity.

Supposedly this story is based on an actual incident before it was novelized and now filmed. And I have to say that if I hadn't heard it was based on a real case I'd never have believed a woman would put up with such obvious abuse, but then again, women viewers may find more in common with Sonia and that identification could yield a more welcome response to this dark drama.

If any parent thinks their female teen may be falling into the trap of thinking thin all the time along with the possibility of contracting an eating disorder then this film could be the cure for that ideation.

One final note: Sonia's body is shown with full-frontal female nudity, first as an art class model and later as she examines the effects of her weight loss. Parents should take this into consideration or view the film first and then bring the teens. Italian films are always better the second time around anyway (due to the speed subtitling).

Your mileage may vary on this one, but definitely don't go to see this one on an empty stomach or you'll be ravenous by the time you leave the theater - order a large popcorn on the way in (extra butter) - lol!

The dark side of the love. Desire of possession, weakness and psychological games between two lovers in a 2004 Verona pretty far from the Romeo and Juliet one's. Garrone strikes, in spite of the bitter critics he received during the 54.Filmfestival in Berlin, where the film was presented. A majestic photography and a deep care of particulars make the film a small esthetical masterpiece, which make oneself forget, the strong north-east Italian accent of the two main characters. There is a lot of work behind the two main actors, but sometimes you have the feeling they are a little too shallow in comparison to the deep thoughts they do. The theme of anorexia is a sort of taboo in our society, but Garrone deals with it with a lot of maturity and sometimes irony, which bring the audience even deeper in the darkness of the story, until the wonderful monologue which close the curtains. Provocative, but real, Garrone is a tough director.

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