Luce dei miei occhi

Sometimes it isn't always love at first sight for both of the people involved and you actually have to work at it. That's true for most of us and most of us never have the courage to keep walking such a tenuous thread for another person. This has become my most cherished and favorite film. I love to watch it late at night on weekends - this really brings the atmosphere and music of the film to life. And such a wonderful ambient soundtrack that is woven throughout the film! Settle in one evening with your significant other and put this one on - it will heighten your perception of your relationship and make you appreciate just how much easier it was for the two of you to get together than for the couple in the film.

LIGHT OF MY EYES ('Luce dei miei occhi') is more a fantasia on theme of loneliness and need for love than it is a straightforward narrative story. Under the direction of Giuseppe Piccioni, who co-wrote the screenplay with Umberto Contarello, it shimmers like and extended poem, a theme so delicate and so suffused with melancholy that it remains as an echo long after the film is over.

Antonio (Luigi Lo Cascio) is a sweet dreamer who respects his station in life as a chauffeur for customers about Rome, following the rule of 'Know when to talk and when to shut up' his boss has set as the standard. In his lonely ennui Antonio narrates his life in a voice-over monologue as a man named Morgan, a character with whom he identifies from his science fiction novel. His life takes on some meaning when he prevents an accident from happening with a young girl Lisa (Barbara Valente) who lives a lonely life with her lonely mother Maria (Sandra Ceccarelli) whose life is divided among making a living in a not too successful frozen food shop, a frustrating sexual attachment to a cold married man, and trying to hold her little home together since her husband's absence. Gradually Antonio's act of protecting Lisa is acknowledged by Maria and while Antonio is quite taken with the distant Maria, Maria thanks him in a brief and passionate but isolated sexual experience. Maria is needy, Antonio is needy, Lisa is needy, but somehow the connection cannot be made: Maria must concentrate on her lack of income to support Lisa.

Antonio, seeing the need to assist Maria's financial situation, allows himself to accept a chauffeur job that involves illegal smuggling of foreigners. Maria's response to her desperate situation is to allow Lisa to be cared for by her grandparents. In a moment suggestive of the old Christmas tale where the man buys combs for his wife's hair while the wife sells her hair to by a gift for her husband, Maria and Antonio face the misunderstanding of their 'friendship' and all seems lost until each changes a significant event that opens a communal door of caring and hope for something more for the little trio.

Both Lo Cascio and Ceccarelli are fine actors and make these difficult roles wholly credible. The atmosphere of the film is well defined by the adroit camera work of Arnaldo Catinari and enhanced by the musical score by Ludovico Einaudi. This is one of those very small films that may evade the casual film-goer not only due to the inappropriately poor DVD cover art but also by the lack of proper promotion. It is a word of mouth success in this country. In Italian with English subtitles. Grady Harp

This movie is a wonderful, successful attempt to describe loneliness. The whole movie is pervaded by a melancholic atmosphere of sadness and desolation, contributed to by even the smallest details.

If you like action, if you consider silence just boring, if you want a frantic-paced story that does not give you the time to reflect, this movie is definitely not for you.

But if you are looking for poetry, you will really love this movie. I do.

Is there a real science fiction story, about Morgan, the earthling? I was unable to see the titles of the science fiction books being read in the movie.

Antonio is a "goody-goody two-shoes" whose mother dressed him in a coat and tie, since he was little. In his escape to Rome, and his accidental encounter with Lisa, he lets himself veer off course, into alien territory: he lets himself get out of his comfortable character, in pursuit of Maria, Lisa's mother.

The kind understanding and advice of his employer tells the story that this is a very old tale of a man's being enamored of a woman who is not for him.

how could you evaluate the suggestion to enjoy the vision of a movie like this, winning the awards for best actors in Venice Festival(both male LoCascio and female Ceccarelli) but also with some Italian pro critics defining it a half delusion? My opinion is the pro had seen another movie, there was a mistake during their private vision, otherwise there is no explanation. This movie is pure poetry, I've seen it twice, at cinema and at home, and always my feeling was comparable with the state of grace that vision of masterpieces give me. The story is about a woman(with a young daughter) and a man, their normal life, aspiring just a bit of happiness, a human contact in a world in which sometimes we fell alien(a constant recall in this movie). The plot is complete, practically perfect. Enjoy it the more when you need a gentle fondling, we are not alone.