The Consequences of Love
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| The Consequences of Love | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Paolo Sorrentino |
| Written by | Paolo Sorrentino |
| Starring | Toni Servillo Olivia Magnani Adriano Giannini Gianna Paola Scaffidi Raffaele Pisu |
| Music by | Pasquale Catalano |
| Cinematography | Luca Bigazzi |
| Editing by | Giogiò Franchini |
| Release date(s) | 2004 |
| Running time | 100 min. |
| Language | Italian |
| IMDb profile | |
The Consequences of Love (original Italian title: Le conseguenze dell'amore) is a film made in 2004 by the Neapolitan director Paolo Sorrentino. It is a psychological thriller which tells the story of a lonely and secretive Italian businessman living in a Swiss hotel. The film won five David di Donatello awards and was nominated for the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. It was the first film to achieve widespread critical acclaim for Sorrentino.
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[edit] Plot
Titta Di Girolamo is a middle-aged loner who has spent the last eight years living in an upmarket hotel in Lugano, Switzerland. Everyday he puts on his suit and wanders around the nearby streets, visiting shopping centres and speaking to few people. In the morning, he solves the chess puzzles in the paper and in the evening he plays Grabber with a bankrupt aristocratic couple who are marooned in the hotel they used to own. Occasionally, he rings his family in Salerno but his wife is always reluctant to talk, and his grown-up children despise him. He develops feelings for Sofia, the beautiful and stylish waitress at the bar but he is so shy that he refuses to speak to her. This upsets her.
The reasons behind Titta's strange existence gradually become apparent. Eight years ago, it is revealed, Titta was a businessman who invested large sums of money for clients. One day, he lost 220 billion lira on the stock market. That money belonged to Cosa Nostra. By way of punishment, Titta must separate from his family and live for the rest of his life as a Mafia pawn; his job is to deliver every week a suitcase containing $10 million to a Swiss bank in order to conceal its criminal origins. He always demands that the bank count the cash by hand.
Titta's other secret is that he is a heroin addict. Every week, this respectable forty-nine-year-old businessman goes up to his hotel room and injects himself with the drug.
One day, things start to happen: two Mafia men suddenly arrive in his hotel room. At first, Titta is frightened that they are there to kill him, though it turns out they are merely using his room as a base in order to carry out an assassination. However, their trip is of consequence to Titta because, as the two gangsters leave, they notice the suitcase containing the money that Titta must deliver that week.
Later, Titta's gregarious younger step-brother turns up. He encourages Titta to engage with Sofia more, which he does. Sofia and he begin an awkward relationship which is romantic but not sexual. They go shopping together, and Titta buys her some shoes.
Meanwhile, during Titta's trip to the bank that week, the bank staff counting the money by hand discover that there is $100,000 missing. Titta is already aware of this - he has stolen it - but pretends to be outraged at their 'mistake' and asks to close his account. His bluff achieves the intended result: in order to avoid offending him, and partly out of fear of the Mafia, the bank staff pretend that they miscounted, and so his theft goes unreported.
It turns out that Titta steals the money in order to buy an expensive car for Sofia. She is initially appalled by this gift, as she feels she does not know him well enough, but later comes up to his room to apologise and to try and discover more about him. Titta, in a rare tender moment, reveals all his secrets to her, and Sofia is so touched that she offers to celebrate his 50th birthday with him on the following evening. He accepts.
Disaster strikes. The next day, the two Mafia assassins return and steal that week's suitcase. Titta panics and immediately telephones his Sicilian Mafia contact, Pippo, who tells him to fly to Sicily that day to explain. But then Titta regains his composure, grabs his gun and switches off the power for the elevator, forcing the Mafia men to use the stairs as a getaway. This slows them down, and Titta is able to use the lift himself to get to the carpark ahead of them. He hides in his car, and kills the duo when they arrive.
Despite recovering the money, Titta decides to fly to Sicily anyway to explain himself. His reasons are initially unclear and he seems uncertain about following through his plans, partly because they will force him to miss his supper with Sofia. However, when Sofia fails to turn up, a despondent Titta, thinking that no-one loves him, leaves for the airport. In actual fact, Sofia does not turn up because she is involved in a car-crash.
Arriving in Palermo, Titta is taken to a nearby hotel and, after a wait in a guestroom, is interrogated by a capo-mafia. Titta explains that he has recovered the money but then says he does not want to give it back. At this point, the Mafia boss ominously tells a subordinate to transfer Titta's account to someone else before asking Titta to tell him where the money is. Titta again refuses. He is led away by guards and the next morning is taken to a building site. Here he is told that unless he reveals the money's whereabouts, he will be lowered from a crane into a crate of concrete mixture and left to die. As he has already given the money to the elderly aristocrats in the hotel, he refuses.
The film ends with Titta being lowered into the crate and thinking of his long-lost friend Dino, who works as an electrician in the Alps.
[edit] Cast
Toni Servillo gives a very astute and understated performance as Titta whilst Olivia Magnani, the grand-daughter of Anna Magnani, is mesmerising as Sofia.
[edit] Cinematography
The film is noted for its extremely stylish cinematography. The most memorable scene features Titta injecting himself with heroin and sees the camera flip 180 degrees as it follows Titta's falling head. There are also many accomplished tracking shots and the opening sequence, depicting a bright white corridor, is astounding.
[edit] Soundtrack
The film has an atmospheric soundtrack, with pieces from the likes of Mogwai and Terranova.
