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Tilda Swinton Is Marvelous in a Melodrama With a Lush Visual Style

The Italian-language I Am Love (2009) starts out as though it's going to be the saga a wealthy family, allowing viewers to vicariously experience a lifestyle most of us can only dream about: well-dressed, well-coiffed people, a luxurious villa, and lavish social occasions with mouthwatering, exotic foods. But the film eventually settles down to focus on a woman in her late 40s who makes some important discoveries about herself, and that woman is played by Tilda Swinton in a superb performance.

Emma (Swinton) was a young Russian woman living in the Soviet Union when she met and married Tancredi Recchi, a Milan man whose family got rich in the textile industry. She and her husband had three children, all of whom are young adults at the time the story takes place. But she begins to rethink how she wants to live her life when she learns that her daughter is in love with a woman. Soon Emma finds herself swept up in a passionate affair with a young man who is a chef.

Basically, the story here is the familiar one of a middle-aged woman trying to avoid suffocation, but there are specific details that make things interesting. Also, I Am Love is worth seeing for its lush visual style, which is reminiscent of the color films of the great Luchino Visconti. Finally, the movie's soundtrack has unusual contemporary music written by composer John Adams (Nixon in China, On the Transmigration of Souls).

Bonus Materials

An interesting extra on the DVD is the 15-minute "Moments on the Set of I Am Love." Here you can see the director working with the actors in the impressive Necchi Campidoglio Mansion, which is in the heart of Milan.

Also shown is a funeral scene being shot at Milan's Monumental Cemetery. In addition, there's filming at the charming rural area near Castel Vittorio, which is 10 miles or so from the resort city of Sanremo on the Italian Riviera.

The DVD provides a feature-length English-language audio commentary by director and co-writer Luca Guadagnino and Tilda Swinton, who was not only the lead actor, but she was also a producer. They say they worked on the film over a seven-year period, and between them they cover a wealth of production detail, including in-depth discussion of the locations and contributions of the cast and crew.

Also on the DVD are 11 video interviews with cast and crew that have a total runtime of about 71 minutes. The best of these is the interview of director Luca Guadagnino. The interviews are in Italian, except for the one of Tilda Swinton, which is in English.

Release Date: October 12, 2010
Total Runtime: 2 hours 0 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Sexuality and Nudity