I watched this film recently at the Melbourne International Film Festival. I found it a provocative and, at times, uncomfortable film. The protagonist is Anna; a childless, unhappily married, pre-menopausal woman who, because of these things, believes herself to be on the periphery of society. During the course of the film she makes a series of questionable choices and eventually has a meltdown. This all takes place while Anna is holidaying in an Italian villa with some friends and their teenage children.
The storytelling is often visual, with evocative lighting and cinematography. The dialogue is subdued. Shots are framed to show Anna's relationship to the environment she is inhabiting. In one scene she is on her mobile phone, emersed in an argument with her husband, her body turned away from a beautiful landscape; in another the camera is focused just on Anna's face, we can't see what is happening around her, we are also trapped in her self-absorption. A starkly thematic shot, towards the end of the film, captures everyone walking along a road; the other adults and the teenagers are together in two groups, Anna follows from behind but she walks alone. But this 'aloneness' is something she has created. She is so smothered by her misery she fails to recognize the ways in which she is part of the group: she is a friend to the adults and an extra adult to the teenagers. When she finds herself preferring the company of the teenagers, instead of being a mature and guiding influence, she becomes dangerously complicit in their reckless behaviour.
By the end of the film Anna is somewhat calmed, she's had a cathartic talk with her sympathetic friend, something that was overdue. But I'm not sure how much progress she has made; it seems she might just fall back into her previous life without any real change, either within herself or externally. I was hoping she would transcend her 'unrelatedness', even embrace it and understand that she doesn't have to follow a conventional path to be involved.
The storytelling is often visual, with evocative lighting and cinematography. The dialogue is subdued. Shots are framed to show Anna's relationship to the environment she is inhabiting. In one scene she is on her mobile phone, emersed in an argument with her husband, her body turned away from a beautiful landscape; in another the camera is focused just on Anna's face, we can't see what is happening around her, we are also trapped in her self-absorption. A starkly thematic shot, towards the end of the film, captures everyone walking along a road; the other adults and the teenagers are together in two groups, Anna follows from behind but she walks alone. But this 'aloneness' is something she has created. She is so smothered by her misery she fails to recognize the ways in which she is part of the group: she is a friend to the adults and an extra adult to the teenagers. When she finds herself preferring the company of the teenagers, instead of being a mature and guiding influence, she becomes dangerously complicit in their reckless behaviour.
By the end of the film Anna is somewhat calmed, she's had a cathartic talk with her sympathetic friend, something that was overdue. But I'm not sure how much progress she has made; it seems she might just fall back into her previous life without any real change, either within herself or externally. I was hoping she would transcend her 'unrelatedness', even embrace it and understand that she doesn't have to follow a conventional path to be involved.