Une romance italienne

This is a slow and sentimental mood piece, the story of a love affair between a man and a woman in Italy before World War II. The man we discover is married with a child. The woman has some secrets in her past. But they enjoy each other's company. If that does not sound like a lot of plot, there is a little more to the film but not much. This is not the kind of film where the viewer can expect a lot to happen. This is a film for people who enjoy seeing attractive lovers together and who like to listen to the romantic strains of an orchestral score with a lot of stringed instruments. It is a sad BRIEF ENCOUNTER sort of film except that the encounter is not really brief.

Why this exquisitely beautiful, sensitive film was never made into a DVD that could be played in the US is a conundrum: it is available for viewing on television in the Eurocinema On Demand section and should be released in this country quickly. the film was made in 2004 based on the novel 'Une relazione' by Carlo Cassola and was adapted for the screen by Doriana Leondeff, Claudio Piersanti and of course the deeply admired writer/director Carlo Mazzacurati. It is a simple love story but told in such a manner that it becomes a beacon for lovers who have loved for a time and lost that love. Look for it under three names - 'An Italian Romance', 'L'amore ritrovato', and 'Une romance italienne'.

The story is set in Tuscany in the year 1936: Giovanni (Stefano Accorsi, brilliant as always) is a gentle man riding home to his bank assignment in Livorno on a train and as he steps off the train a beautiful girl named Maria (Maya Sansa) calls 'Ciao' to him from a window in the train. At first not recognizing her, Giovanni suddenly remembers her as being the teenage love he shared in Livorno when Maria was a blonde - a vision he has never forgotten. The two find each other and begin to rekindle their past love. Giovanni is married and has a child and Maria now has her own dark hair and is a manicurist, unattached at the moment. Through a series of weekly encounters they re-discover their passion that has never left, but secrets are slowly discovered - secrets about their lives in the past few years and incidents that occur in the present that test their current affair and eventually permanently change it. WW II comes and they meet again in 1945 when Italy is devastated by the war and time has changed their lives, their affair having become a beautiful memory.

Carlo Mazzacurati unveils this passionate story verismo style, with all the atmosphere of the trains and the friendship of the conductor (Marco Messeri) and the constant passengers that are the threads that tie the story together. Both Accorsi and Sansa are brilliant and the chemistry on the screen is magnetic. The cinematography is by Luca Bigazzi and the delicate sensuous musical score is by Franco Piersanti. In all this is a small film about a passionate romance between two lovers whose lives only cross on occasion. A little masterpiece of filmmaking.

Grady Harp

This story of a doomed passion is nothing if not easy on the eye. The lovers are stunningly good looking and the camera bathes them and their surroundings in a lustrous glow. Who would have thought fascist Italy, repressive and lurching towards catastrophe, could be so agreeable? Neither of the protagonists have anything much to work with and some scenes are tediously drawn out. Watchable enough but instantly forgettable stuff.