I Am Love - Wellington Film Society

Luca Guadagnino, Italy 2009, 120 mins, M sex scenes

Watching this lush, operatic Italian drama about a clannish family of wealthy Milanese industrialists is like suddenly being exposed to a full orchestra when you have become accustomed to listening to the plaintive sawing of a lone violinist. It’s an exquisite, all-enveloping feast of sensual pleasures. It’s almost certainly the most elegant piece of cinema you’ll see this year. It is melodrama as celebration rather than as guilty pleasure. Tilda Swinton is magnificent as Emma Recchi, the Russian-born wife of the heir to the Recchi business, Tancredi. Initially we don’t even realise that Swinton’s character is the centre of the story. Reserved, somewhat aloof, she seems to be just another polished, precious gem in the Recchi collection. But a fateful encounter with a handsome young chef and his sublime cooking gradually awakens the young girl who has been dormant since Emma left Russia to be Tancredi’s wife. Guadagnino references both Visconti and Hitchcock as the saga unfolds, but his voice is original and his vision utterly compelling.

- Wendy Ide, The Times.