It’s tricky to categorise There’s Still Tomorrow – the Italian film that on its home turf beat Barbie at the box office – and even harder to predict where its enchanting story will wind up. It’s a feminist comedy-drama that occasionally verges on melodrama. It’s stunningly shot in black and white, evoking the country’s postwar neorealist cinema, and stars seasoned actress Paola Cortellesi, also making her feature-directing debut.
Set in 1946, it tells the story of downtrodden wife and mother of three Delia (a fantastic Cortellesi), whose miserable life revolves around serving her brutally cruel husband Ivano (Valerio Mastandrea), her selfish children and cantankerous, bedridden father-in-law.
It’s clear that in her corner of working-class Rome, poor Delia has long since accepted her lot and abandoned any dreams she may have had. The family’s poverty forces her to run between low-paying jobs, from fixing umbrellas to injecting meds into rich, elderly behinds.
Initially, watching Delia endure the contempt of eldest daughter Marcella while hoping to marry her off and the unsolicited abuse from the menfolk makes There’s Still Tomorrow a bit difficult to enjoy. Then, one day, an opportunity presents for real change. Employing a jaunty mix of cinematic styles, anachronistic songs and the talents of a superb cast, Cortellesi has created a delightful debut that subverts any apprehension that this will be just another bleak story about the subjugated sex.
Moments of domestic violence segue into macabre dance numbers, while the neorealist aesthetic (with supporting actors seemingly transplanted straight from a Taviani brothers film) is interrupted by funky jazz and Outkast on the soundtrack.
But rather than a hotchpotch of ill-fitting ideas, this makes for a perfect concoction that transforms an unheroic heroine into a woman of quiet courage. Cortellesi drops a trail of plot breadcrumbs to a wonderful denouement, which may explain audiences’ warm embrace of this charming fantasy.
Like There’s Still Tomorrow, La Chimera is more esoteric than its synopsis suggests – that of an old-school Italian pulp thriller – or what it looks like, with its 1980s Tuscany setting shot on grainy film.
It has rising star Josh O’Connor (The Crown) as the film’s sole Englishman, Arthur, a moody archaeologist of mysterious provenance who blows hot and cold – he can beguile with a smile, then, in a fit of temper, empty a train carriage within seconds.
Just released from an Italian prison, Arthur has little to return to other than his freezing hovel and the kindness of an ageing matriarch (Isabella Rossellini) whose daughter he once loved. Shambling about in a soiled linen suit, the once-respectable antiquities student falls straight back in with his crooked friends, who exploit his expertise, as well as a seemingly ethereal gift for “dowsing” to find treasure. Arthur’s crew spend their days carousing and scouring tombs for Etruscan artefacts to be sold on the black market. In a rural Tuscany town rife with corruption, it turns out even Arthur’s regular fences can’t be trusted.
This original set-up comes from Alice Rohrwacher, whose cinematic flights of fancy (Happy As Lazzaro, The Wonders) routinely win accolades at Cannes and screen in our own annual film festivals.
Despite the presence of leading man O’Connor, La Chimera is an unapologetically strange beast that one might appreciate more than enjoy. Shot on film occasionally sped up to achieve the buffoonish effect of old 8mm farces, it’s a faded period piece with some nice moments (Rossellini’s five bossy daughters are fun).
Arthur’s gang maraud like extras in a Fellini film while the Picasso-featured Brit holds the calmly taciturn centre of this off-beat story with very few lines and an ambiguous expression. But although O’Connor is a beguiling lead, there’s not quite enough star wattage to mitigate the meandering unease of a picture that’s not quite the sum of its clever parts.
Rating out of 5 for There’s Still Tomorrow: ★★★★½
Rating out of 5 for La Chimera: ★★★
There’s Still Tomorrow directed by Paola Cortellesi and La Chimera directed by Alice Rohrwacher will feature at the Italian Film Festival. The festival’s programme of 24 features begins this month in Auckland and tours the country until January.
