Saturn in Opposition
Rome. Davide writes fairy tales for children, and his apartment is the meeting place for a big, noisy group of friends who are really a family. Lorenzo, his partner, works in advertising. Antonio, a banker, is married to Angelica, a psychologist who helps people quit smoking, and is secretly seeing a florist. Neval, a Turkish interpreter, is married to Roberto, a policeman who never quite fits in. There is Davide's ex, there is Lorenzo's colleague Roberta, who believes in astrology and has a drug problem. Long dinners, jokes, arguments, wine. Then, one evening at the table, Lorenzo collapses.
Ferzan Özpetek, the Turkish-born director who has spent his whole career making Italian films, is the great filmmaker of chosen families, and this is one of his warmest and saddest. The camera moves around the crowded tables and the hospital corridor as if it were one of the friends. Pierfrancesco Favino, Stefano Accorsi, Margherita Buy and Serra Yılmaz lead an ensemble that feels completely lived-in, and Ambra Angiolini, in her first film role, won the David di Donatello as Roberta.
It is a film about grief, and about how a loss forces everyone to stop hiding: the affairs, the fears, the things never said. It can be melodramatic, and Özpetek never holds back on emotion. But it is generous, full of love for its characters and for a group of friends who become each other's family. A Perfect Day showed his darker side. This is Özpetek with his heart wide open.
