I Am Love (2009)

Essential Viewing

Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Io sono l'amore

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Writers: Barbara Alberti, Ivan Cotroneo, Walter Fasano, Luca Guadagnino

Cinematographer: Yorick Le Saux

Composer: John Adams

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Pippo Delbono, Diane Fleri, Maria Paiato

With adventurous mise en scène and an uncommonly bold use of music, Guadagnino’s affectingly acted film follows the progress of an illicit romance conducted between a middle-aged Russian woman, who married into a wealthy Italian family, and her son’s best friend, a talented chef with whom he is about to go into business, which, of course, cannot possibly end well. Iain.Stott