Open My Heart

This film is worth nothing really. Poor acting, amatorial direction, silly and obvious script. Of course it is a success being made by a woman and diplaying nudity... well that tells it all. Beside it has nothing to do with "noir" and the movie "Donnie Darko" that is a much better film. And it has nothing to do with italian film, please!

The Italian film "Open My Heart" is a provocative, dark and deeply disturbing domestic drama, fraught with bizarre interpersonal relationships and riddled with sexual tension. This is not an easy film for the sensitive or undiscriminating viewer to handle - what with its graphic sex scenes, depictions of lesbian incest and half a dozen or so harrowing murders as part of its overall package. But neither is it a film for the prurient or for those in search of tawdry titillation to get excited about - for "Open My Heart" is more concerned with subtleties of character and evocation of mood than it is with cheap thrills and fleshly exploitation.

The film, written and directed by Giada Colagrande (who also plays Caterina), focuses on two sisters living together after the death of their mother fifteen years earlier. The older of the two, Maria, has taken to prostitution as a means of supporting the both of them, bringing her customers home in the daytime to the same bed that she and her sister share at night. The younger sister, Caterina, is a shy 17-year old virgin who has been made a virtual prisoner in the apartment in which they live, being allowed to venture out only to take dancing lessons several times a week (even her schooling is done at home). Caterina accepts her fate good-naturedly and almost gratefully, even though she is forced to watch and listen - with an attitude of growing resentment and envy - as a steady stream of men flows in and out of the bedroom to make love to her sister.

Maria wields a tremendous amount of power in her relationship with Caterina, essentially isolating the youngster from any meaningful contact with the outside world. Is this done out of a perverted sense of love and duty, a desire to protect her sister from the problems of life on the outside? Or is it a product of her own innate need to subjugate and dominate a weaker individual who never complains about her treatment and who seemingly loves Maria unconditionally? Colagrande never spells out the answers for us explicitly, but we do see the way in which Maria manipulates Caterina to her own advantage, going so far as to make her her lover despite their being siblings. But even Maria can have only so much control over another person and, eventually, Caterina's growing desire for men begins to manifest itself. When Caterina becomes attracted to one of Maria's customers - a middle-aged custodian at the dance school Caterina attends - the man gets pulled into a bizarre sexual triangle that begins Maria's descent into premeditated violence and murder.

One of the gravest injustices one could perform against this film would be to relate too much of the plot beforehand, for much of the power of the film lies in seeing where the filmmakers will take us in terms of the storyline. The movie begins slowly with Colagrande intentionally leaving out vital pieces of information that she then reveals in her own due time. This intentional ambiguity serves to pull us deeper into the drama once the details begin to fall into place. What's amazing is that, even with all these sensational elements embedded in the plot, the film always remains low-keyed and detached in tone and mood. Much of the time is taken up with people sitting or standing around NOT saying much of anything to one another but conveying meaning through their gestures, their subtle actions and the silences that say more than their words ever could. Even the "violence" at the end is muted and understated to the point where it doesn't disturb the placid surface of these characters' lives.

Colagrande has created a world that is just bizarre and off-kilter enough to throw the viewer off balance and make us question what is right and what is wrong for the duration of the film. She shows how easily sex can be converted into a weapon in a power struggle between two individuals, especially when one of the parties is dominant by nature and the other submissive. She also exploits that age-old fetish that views death as the ultimate orgasm, as Maria and Caterina finally descend into a macabre game of perversion, trickery and murder that puts one in mind of the female praying mantis or black widow spider.

As the people caught in the bizarre love triangle, Colagrande, Natalie Cristiani and Claudio Botosso give restrained, effective performances. Colagrande chose to shoot the film with a digital camera, giving the picture the slightly seedy, pseudo-amateurish look that this highly personal, intensely intimate material calls for.

"Open My Heart" is not for those who are easily offended by explicit sex and suggestive violence, but those who appreciate movies that push the envelope and show us aspects of life we may not have seen before will find this a rewarding experience.

Considering the overt slickness of recent Italian fare such as Last Kiss and Casomai, I guess I should be overjoyed by this. Quick synopsis: Older sister's a hooker, younger sister's 17, never been kissed (well, almost), not let out of the house except to go to dance class, hooker sister helps younger one with Dante, Kepler and the poetry of John Donne. Good start huh? Well, things just get more fun from there, and I won't spoil the noirish, lynchian paths this DV enterprise takes. The sex scenes are more squirmy than erotic, and the director's idea to flash occasionally at Renaissance-period biblical depictions immediately after some sordid event seems an un-subtle moralizing (I'll take my perversions straight, so to speak, and make up my own mind about the moral call later). However, this is Italy, so maybe it was just real nice wallpaper in a corner of the room we didn't see normally.

Not entirely a success, but an interesting first try from the director.

Could supplant Donnie Darko as a midnight movie attraction in a few college towns, but I don't see it making too many best-of lists.

I just saw this at the New Italian Cinema festival at NY's Lincoln center. While the digitally shot film was not without interest, it really comes across as re-tread of Chabrol, particularly in the last third. However the young director/writer/star's work is impressive when you consider she made this film for about $5,000 US.

I think I said it all in my review title but - starting with the positive - I thought the lead performances by Giada Colagrande as Caterina and Natalie Cristiani as her older sister Maria were really quite good. Caterina's almost total subservience to Maria in the beginning and the arc by which she gradually establishes herself in the relationship is well written and well portrayed by both actresses. Unfortunately the movie is dragged down by the low production values and the seeming lack of attention given to any part of the story falling outside of the interactions between Caterina and Maria. The dialogue between the two leads, for example, is tight, measured and very effective in advancing the gradual transformation of the relationship between them. Dialogue involving the supporting cast members, by contrast, often seems stilted and on-the nose. The clear budget limitations under which this movie was made impacted other areas such as the camera work and uninspiring location choices (did that really look like a ballet school that Caterina was attending? It seemed more like the girls were walking in and out of someone's French windows), but these are more forgivable than the aforementioned dialogue issues. Overall, though, anytime someone puts time and effort into creative production there should be some kudos sent their way along with hope that any lessons learnt result in future productions of increasingly high quality, so I do that now - good effort, guys, particularly to Giada and Natalie on your performances - well done!