Filmbath Festival 2023 – L’immensita

It doesn’t take much to want to go and see a film which stars Penelope Cruz. Last year we showed the amazing Official Competition, in which she starred as the most left field film director imaginable. In this new film, by Italian director Emanuele Crialese, she not only adopts a less outrageous persona, but even speaks Italian. The film (whose title summons up all manner of potential echoes) follows Clara, a wife and mother living in Rome in the 1970s. Her husband (Felice) is a stereotypical Italian man from the 70s, authoritarian at home, and unfaithful when he’s not there. But Clara’s primary relationship is with Adriana, her daughter who has said s/he prefers to be known as Andrea (Andrew) and identifies as a boy.

Clara is far from wanting to suppress this wish, although is at a loss at how best to know how to. The catalyst is a meeting with an encampment (hidden behind a bed of symbolic reeds) of Romani (what we call Romany) people, and a girl called Sara, with whom Andrea begins a delicate romance.

Andrea is the emotional centre of the film, and Luana Giuliani gives a luminous performance in the role; nonetheless, it is Cruz’s magnetic screen persona that holds our attention. She has been a major star for over 30 years; she has an extraordinary beauty, and simply becomes a better actress as the years pass by.