La bestia nel cuore

'La Bestia nel cuore' ('The Beast in the Heart' released in the USA as 'Don't Tell') is an intense Italian film written and directed by Cristina Comencini that tackles subject matter so visceral that the telling of it requires complete concentration from the audience in order to feel the power of the impact at the end. It is a tough film to watch because of the story, but it is a superb film to watch because of the excellent cast and production crew.

Sabina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) is introduced to us in a cemetery where she is arranging for the interment of her dead parents: the mood for the story is subtly set. Sabina is a dubbing actress for translating films into Italian, a 'sell-out' acting job compared to the life of her live-in boyfriend Franco (Alessio Boni) who is a stage actor being tempted to accept a role in a TV series which pays more money than the stage. Sabina confesses she wants to get pregnant, she does, and with her pregnancy she begins to have nightmares of shadowy childhood memories. She is afraid to discuss these with Franco, or with her best friend Emilia (Stefania Rocca) who is blind and has been in love with Sabina since childhood. It seems the only person with whom she can confide her secret fears is her brother Daniele (Luigi Lo Cascio) who has moved from Italy to Charlottesville, VA where he is a professor at the University and has a happy family life with wife Anna (Lucy Akhurst) and two children. Sabina flies to the US to be with her brother and in the course of their reunion the two siblings uncover the beasts in their hearts: sexual abuse from their father now departed. How this discovery alters their lives is the dénouement of the film.

There are many subplots - infidelity on the part of Franco while Sabina is away, a lesbian relationship that develops between Emilia and another of Sabina's friends Maria (Angela Finocchiaro) - and Comencini draws subtle parallels between these twists along side the main story of incest discovery. Yet without concentration, these subplots can become distracting.

The acting is on the highest level and the changing locations are shot by cinematographer Fabio Cianchetti with sensitive respect of the nuances of suggestion encased in each place. The uncredited musical score is an admixture from Robert Schumann's piano sonata to contemporary works and serves to heighten the actions and mood. In Italian with subtitles. A film well worth watching.

Seeing the poor cinematographic qualities of this movie, I pondered for a while whether it was intentional or not for the director to make this movie look like a soap opera. Given that Franco, in the movie, is a soap opera comedian, and he has discussions with his director about theatre and cinema vs TV.

I thought there was some kind of clever smart-ass postmodern metaphor about the movie itself, to it. And I kept watching, and watching.. and .. no.. it never came.

It really just is a cheap movie that looks and feels like a very bland soap opera.

The director has written 4 books and directed 7 films but this is her first film based on her own book. She said it has been a challenging task for her to direct this film because one has to betray the book while directing its film version. It has been a difficult task for her to cut out many written in her book.

In general, it's a well-done film about many unusual relationships: family relationships (including father-daughter, mother-daughter, father-son, mother-son, brother-sister relationships) involved in pedophilia, lesbian relationship, co-cohabiting couple relationship in an adultery, divorced couple relationship in an adultery. Exactly because of such a wide angle about relationships, the core element about victims/survivors of pedophilia has been dealt lightly but conscientiously.

Very good acting from the supporting actresses Angela Finocchiaro and Stefania Rocca. The acting of Giovanna Mezzogiorno is less natural. The anxiety she delivers in this film is not that of being in a pedophilia victim-hood, but more of that of her impersonal and emotionless involvement.

Two scenes I found unnecessary in the film. One is the (imagined) kissing scene of Emilia and Sabina. Enough evidence has been given (though later) suggesting Emilia is a lesbian, so no need of showing this scene. Another disturbing scene is when Franco was watching Sabina playing with his children. I found it redundant to show the detailed scene of Sabina's conversation with the children.

In addition, the plot is well-linked through narrating all correspondences (letters and emails) between the protagonists. A neat idea.

This film was an amateur job at best. I would have expected more than a melo-dramatic soap opera to tell the story of such a sensitive subject. I've seen more talented first time directors and writers do a whole hell of a lot better then these seasoned soap workers. A pity certain scenes were interesting and somewhat well done had no leg to stand on, hence they seemed comical in their brief moments and then certain scenes in their flailing over stated tragedy were completely worthy of only a snicker and a wave of embarrassment for the filmmakers to write and direct such a cliché and stereotypical portrayal of...well...Everything AND Everyone! SHAME on the Oscar committee for nominating THIS film for Best Foreign Film...what kind of Judges does that committee have??? Ex Soap stars? We need to maintain SOME kind of level of excellence to recognize great ability to truly create work worthy of Oscar nominations next to the likes of our greatest filmmakers and entertainment talent of intelligence, skill and creativity, not amateur soap "workers". Please. Movie of the week maybe....but an Oscar Nomination? Because it was made in Italy. WAKE UP!! HELLO!!

Congratulations on this film being one of the five nominated by the Academy Awards for best Foreign Language Film. I saw this at the 2006 Palm Springs International Film Festival and I ranked it #5 of the 35 films I saw. This is a very good film with excellent acting with a strong cast and some very strong and interesting story characters. Great leading actress with a splendid supporting cast. Emilia, Maria and the director are three very interesting characters that really bring the film together. I would be interested in reading Cristina Comenici's novel if it is available in English translation. I would also recommend her film "La Bestia Nel Cuore" ("Don't Tell" English language title which should actually translate to the Beast in the Heart) and give it a 8.5 out of a possible 10.