Saturday, August 27, 2005

Respiro (Emanuele Crialese)

No, I shouldn't have written the name of Maria in vain last night. The madonna surfaced with her grace from the water! This film titled RESPIRO (2002) is set on the island of Lampedusa, the southernmost Italian island closer to Africa than to Sicily. The beauty of the coast is out of this world (I mean Europe).

It's a story of a young mother who is a little off balance, and her teenage son and her fisherman husband. And about the sort of violence that permeates the islanders' everyday life. These are violences among children, from men to women, from adults to children, from humans to dogs. But not much to say about the story line, really. The light reflected on the rocks, the colours of the sea, and the strong wind make up all the charm of the film. Especially powerful are the scenes taken in the water. Some of the scenes (the heroine swimming all by herself, people's search for the heroine that they think is dead, and the final scene of retrieval/reconnection) are very memorable.

The central figure is Madonna. An exchange takes place between the statuette of Santa Maria and Grazia (the heroine). It ends the film in an eloquent silence, so to speak, and the villagers' deep sense of reconciliation. Who wouldn't cry?

In the future I may forget the names of the actress (Valeria Golino) who played the role of the heroine or that of the boy who played the son Pasquale. But Lampedusa will remain. And the dogs shot to death.