Why this exquisitely beautiful, sensitive film was never made into a DVD that could be played in the US is a conundrum: it is available for viewing on television in the Eurocinema On Demand section and should be released in this country quickly. the film was made in 2004 based on the novel 'Une relazione' by Carlo Cassola and was adapted for the screen by Doriana Leondeff, Claudio Piersanti and of course the deeply admired writer/director Carlo Mazzacurati. It is a simple love story but told in such a manner that it becomes a beacon for lovers who have loved for a time and lost that love. Look for it under three names - 'An Italian Romance', 'L'amore ritrovato', and 'Une romance italienne'.
The story is set in Tuscany in the year 1936: Giovanni (Stefano Accorsi, brilliant as always) is a gentle man riding home to his bank assignment in Livorno on a train and as he steps off the train a beautiful girl named Maria (Maya Sansa) calls 'Ciao' to him from a window in the train. At first not recognizing her, Giovanni suddenly remembers her as being the teenage love he shared in Livorno when Maria was a blonde - a vision he has never forgotten. The two find each other and begin to rekindle their past love. Giovanni is married and has a child and Maria now has her own dark hair and is a manicurist, unattached at the moment. Through a series of weekly encounters they re-discover their passion that has never left, but secrets are slowly discovered - secrets about their lives in the past few years and incidents that occur in the present that test their current affair and eventually permanently change it. WW II comes and they meet again in 1945 when Italy is devastated by the war and time has changed their lives, their affair having become a beautiful memory.
Carlo Mazzacurati unveils this passionate story verismo style, with all the atmosphere of the trains and the friendship of the conductor (Marco Messeri) and the constant passengers that are the threads that tie the story together. Both Accorsi and Sansa are brilliant and the chemistry on the screen is magnetic. The cinematography is by Luca Bigazzi and the delicate sensuous musical score is by Franco Piersanti. In all this is a small film about a passionate romance between two lovers whose lives only cross on occasion. A little masterpiece of filmmaking.
Grady Harp
