I Am Love

I Am Love, a lavish and intense look at a wealthy family's struggle against modernity, is the mesmerizing result of a decades-long collaboration between writer/director Luca Guadagnino and actress Tilda Swinton. The loosely paced narrative revolves around the consequences of powerful patriarch Edoardo Recchi, Sr. (Gabriele Ferzetti) passing the lucrative family business to Tancredi (Pippo Delbono), his son, and Edoardo, Jr. (Flavio Parenti), his grandson. Emma (Swinton), Tancredi's stolen treasure of a wife who long ago mastered the art of being Italian, lives in a gilded cage until a chance meeting with a young chef opens her eyes to the possibility of pleasure and happiness on her own terms. Swinton, who fearlessly embodies the violent interaction of family values and emotional independence with almost imperceptible facial gestures, visualizes her emotional awakening by gradually trading designer dresses and chic cardigans for earthy trousers and flimsy tank tops. I Am Love is full of stylistic homages to films and directors past, from chase sequences à la Hitchcock to the kind of long, driving shots used by Michelangelo Antonioni, adding depth to a story that celebrates those who struggle against societal conventions. Food, as prepared by the youthful Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), constitutes its own language within the film, and it's through his lovingly prepared dishes that tragic, irreversible, and ultimately liberating actions are set in motion.