It's great to be back to my rental run. Now it's the turn of my favorite Spanish actress Penélope but as i have watched a lot of her movies, this would be quick. I never understand European cinema because we never heard about it in France, except the blockbuster ones. So it's only because i have thoroughly checked her filmography that I pick this one. It's about a cheating husband and it's not the only movie that Penélope did in that field. The movie illustrates clearly why it happens : just because the cheater (whose i saw younger in « Le Grand Bleu ») has better life with his new lover than with his wife, who is a look alike of Sienna Miller. For sure, after it's the usual dilemma as this cheater fails to choose and act morally. It's hard to understand why he falls for Pénelope as she has really nothing for her : no happy past, no future, almost jobless and living in a ruin. Anyway, it's only because she is that lost soul with a heart and smile of a princess that Pénelope is really exceptional ! So the movie is sometimes a bit long, needlessly too erotic but at the end, it has a real story, moving moments, it made us alert with its Italian background and it's finally an excellent recommendation and her best Italian movie!

Rain plays a big part in this account of a doomed love affair. At the center of the story is Timoteo, a successful Italian surgeon, happily married, by all appearances, but hiding a deep secret which he does not share with anyone. The narrative begins with a horrible accident in which Angela, his teen age daughter suffers a bad accident while riding her motorcycle in the rain. Timoteo, who is told by a colleague about Angela's ordeal, had been at the hospital all the time, but he must yield to another doctor to do the dangerous procedure on her daughter.As he waits impatiently the result of Angela's operation, his mind wanders to another period of his life when he met, and fell passionately in love with Italia, a common woman from the country, now eking a life in the outskirts of Rome. They meet as Timoteo's car breaks down. Italia, who lives nearby offers the use of her phone to call for help with the car. Timoteo ends up raping the woman. The affair continues because Timoteo cannot bear to part without this woman, in spite of being married to Elsa, a beautiful woman with lots of class. The rough sex with Italia turns into an affair as he cannot seem to have the will power to break it. Timoteo promises Italia he will tell his wife, but he never even broaches the subject. Timoteo manages to get Italia and Elsa pregnant at the same time. Italia, who realizes Timoteo will never leave his wife decides to end her pregnancy, something that eventually brings her own demise, leaving Timoteo to suffer.Sergio Castellitto is a wonderful actor. In his second film as a director, he chose to adapt the novel written by his wife, Margaret Mazzantini, in this collaboration. It is a sexually charged account of a man who has lived through a horrible childhood as his father abandoned him at an early age. That event seems to be the root of all the problems in his Timoteo's mind. Having achieved success, as well as a good wife, he is hell bent on a self destructive journey that will ultimately ruin his life, feeling responsible for what he did to Italia.It is hard to understand what made Timoteo act the way he did. Perhaps the rage he has kept in check for such a long time, triggers a behavior that is out of character for a man of his stature. Having it all, Timoteo embarks in an affair that will destroy a woman that gave her all to a man that could not appreciate her worth. His guilt comes to the surface as he faces his own daughter's accident where he is helpless to do anything for her, relying on his close colleagues to do the job.The surprise in the film was Penelope Cruz who shows a different side from what she had been doing in the cinema. She usually casts a bland presence by being asked to play women out of her range. She is totally changed in this film in which director Castellitto must have influenced the way she is seen. There are a lot of symbols in the film. Italia is a sort of modern Cabiria, without her optimism and her attitude toward life. Italia is a more reserved woman who knows she is out of her league in her affair with Timoteo.Sergio Castellitto shows he has interesting things to say to an audience. The fact that his character raped Italia is hard to understand. He even asks a close friend if he frequents prostitutes. In Timoteo's mind there is nothing more than feeling superior to Italia as he rapes her. Yet, his own guilty feelings will get the best of him, when he realizes Italia loved him selflessly. The beautiful Claudia Gerini appears as Elsa, Timoteo's wife. Gianfilippo Corticelli, the cinematographer, captures the two opposite worlds of Timoteo's by juxtaposing them in ways that reminded us of some of the 1960s films in which the outskirts of Rome served as the background for a lot of them with the new buildings rising as future housing and then taking the action to luxury interiors. Mr. Castellitto shows he has learned his lesson in front of the camera and now moves behind it to give his fans a different view of things.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of film-making is its seductive capacity to fool its critics and audiences alike. Film's poetic capacity, its ability to capture contemporary culture and re-present it to us as fragments of desire, creates much confusion. Surely the critics and audiences understand a filmmaker's desire to show the human condition in all of its depravity. Surely the critics and audiences understand a filmmaker's hope to unveil the irony of our time. In this instance, that true love can never commence with a violent rape. Moreover, that we can no more think of Penelope Cruz as an ugly and destitute woman, any more than we could imagine Rosie O'Donnell as seductress. It is clear that the filmmaker knew full well that to cast Cruz was to place the sensuous and beautiful Hispanic Penelope in the paradoxical role of wretched woman where rape and infidelity, as the basis of male fantasy, might not offend one's sensibilities before the realization of its absurdity take hold. Ah the art of film-making – the capacity to show the absurd. Certainly Chaplin understood it, despite the disapproval of The Great Dictator. The cinematography in Non ti Muovere (Don't Move) is wonderful, the story is richly developed, the characters are well played and the combination is seductively appealing. Is this a love story? No, this is a reminder of all that is revolting about our contemporary society – that the poor continue to suffer abuse, the rich get away with murder, and women will be portrayed just exactly as men desire: weak and submissive or cold and calculating. Thank you Sergio Castellitto for undergoing this film based on a novel by Margaret Mazzantini. Many well-educated film viewers understand the irony and pathos often portrayed in these kinds of films – and for that I am grateful to film arts. But where are the educators who have failed to engage students in discourse? Shame on our system of education for blithely failing to teach young minds to critique the arts! Bravo to film artists who continue to critique society.

This movie was one of the most beautiful and moving films I have ever seen! There is a fascinating and intricate balance between the characters and the effects of their actions. It is a study of the deepest of human emotions and the necessity for passion and unrestricted love.Timoteo is a wealthy surgeon who seems to have the perfect life - a beautiful wife, a luxurious beach house, the perfect job and a ready-made social circle. But these superficial trappings are not what he wants out of life. Notably, Timoteo's relationship with his wife is clearly lacking passion and true love. Feeling detached from life, Timoteo is reawakened when he encounters a destitute woman named Italia and rapes her.Italia is a woman of lower class who is most likely uneducated. A key aspect of her character is her appearance - a slight gape in her teeth, thrift store clothes, and an overall impoverished countenance complement her quirky personality. To the audience, however, there is something downtrodden and lonely about her. Initially afraid when Timoteo rapes her, she becomes attracted to the passion between them and their encounters become frequent.Passion grows into love, and both Timoteo and Italia are happiest and most "alive" when they are together. Italia saves Timoteo from becoming an emotionless shell and Timoteo returns the favor by pulling Italia away from her cliff of loneliness.The film isn't about sadomasochism or a "study in the devious sexual behaviours of some individuals who received devastating emotional shocks by their fathers in their early teens", nor is it "a study in sadomasochism". The sexual behaviors exhibited by the lead characters are simply a result of their mutual unrealized longings for passion and love. Though the initial encounter between the two was entirely physical and . . . criminal . . . the desires that grow between them develop into one of the most beautiful and heart wrenching love stories captured on film. Throughout their year-long affair, the intensity of their love is evident in the way they hold each other and look into each other's eyes. Timoteo also refuses to take Italia into the abortion clinic when she becomes pregnant with his child, a sign that he dreads the thought of potentially putting her in danger or destroying the life they had created together.Despite the argument that briefly tears them apart, Timoteo and Italia are reunited only hours before the tragic ending. Timoteo does everything in his power to save Italia though her fate is inevitable and she dies as she sleeps next to her lover.Red proves to be a powerful symbol of passion throughout the movie, which is beautifully filmed, most notably in the red shoes Timoteo buys for Italia.Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this film is that it is so realistic. Each character faces daily struggles that could have just as easily happened to anyone in the audience. The film appeals to the basic desires that each of us seek to fulfill - true love, passion and happiness - in the rawest and grittiest fashion. The film is as far as one can get from a fairytale love story, and the ending is far from happy. Timoteo learns to be content with his wife and loves his daughter with all his heart. Italia is buried in a simple coffin without a marker and Timoteo is forced to face reality and let Italia become nothing more than a memory and a lesson about the beauty and complexity of life.The acting in this movie was excellent; Cruz delivered an awe-inspiring performance as a character whom is far from Cruz's usual portrayals and Castellitto's acting and directing delivers a perfect balance of sadness and passion.Perfect 10!