| The Double Hour | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Giuseppe Capotondi |
| Produced by | Francesca Cima Nicola Giuliano |
| Written by | Alessandro Fabbri Ludovica Rampoldi Stefano Sardo |
| Starring | Filippo Timi Kseniya Rappoport |
| Music by | Pasquale Catalano |
| Cinematography | Tat Radcliffe |
| Editing by | Guido Notari |
| Distributed by | Medusa Film |
| Release date(s) | September 10, 2009 (Venice) October 9, 2009 (Italy) |
| Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
| Budget | €2.8 million $4.3 million [1] |
The Double Hour (Italian: La doppia ora) is a 2009 Italian romantic thriller film. It is directed by Giuseppe Capotondi, produced by Francesca Cima and Nicola Giuliano, and stars Filippo Timi and Kseniya Rappoport. Principal photography began in October 2008 in Turin, Italy. The film opened in Italy on October 9, 2009, after premiering in competition at Venice Film Festival in September 2009, where it eventually won the Volpi Cup award for Best Actress for Rappoport. It was also screened at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival[2]. Samuel Goldwyn Films released The Double Hour in the US on April 15, 2011 [3].
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Sonia (Ksenia Rappoport), a maid in a hotel in Turin, is cleaning a guest's bathroom when the guest apparently jumps out the bedroom window to her death.
Later, Sonia attends a speed dating event where she meets Guido (Filippo Timi), a former policeman who now works as a security guard. They strike up a friendship, and spend some time together after the event. As they part, Guido notices that the time is 23:23 - a double hour, when the hour and minute are the same. He believes that at such times, one may make a wish and it will be granted - although he admits to Sonia that it doesn't always work.
Some days later, Guido takes Sonia to the country villa where he works. The villa has an elaborate security system, but Guido disables part of the system so that the two of them can go for a walk in the grounds.
In the woods, they are ambushed by an armed man and Guido is knocked unconscious. Waking up in the villa, he is forced by armed men in balaclavas to disable the security system. The robbers systematically loot the villa of its art treasures. Afterwards, the leader of the armed gang menaces Sonia, suggesting he is about to rape her. Enraged, Guido launches himself at him. They struggle, and a shot is fired but it is not known what happened.
Sonia is shown back at work, then visiting Guido's gravesite. She is distracted at work, frequently seeing glimpses of Guido's face, sometimes at a double hour. She is questioned by Dante, a policeman and former colleague of Guido, who suspects the robbery at the villa may have been an inside job. Dante gives her a photograph which appears to show her with Guido in Buenos Aires, although she has never been there.
Sonia feels her sanity slipping away as her visions of Guido become more frequent and elaborate. Finally she is devastated when she hears that her friend and workmate, Margherita, has committed suicide by jumping out a window.
At Margherita's funeral, Sonia is distraught when the officiating priest names the deceased as Sonia instead of Margherita. Bruno, a regular guest at the hotel, takes Sonia away in his car. He gives her a flask which he says contains coffee and a hint of liqueur. Sonia drinks, and is drugged. Bruno drives to a wooded area and drags Sonia out of the car, wrapping her in a plastic sheet and burying her in a shallow grave. Sonia blacks out, and is at the point of death when Guido digs her up and rescues her.
Later, Sonia recovers consciousness in a hospital. She learns that only three days have elapsed since the robbery, and everything she experienced since then was in her imagination as she lay in a coma. Guido and Margherita are both alive.
Guido becomes suspicious of Sonia when Dante tells him that she has a criminal past, and when the organizer of the speed-dating event tells him that Sonia specifically asked to meet him. He follows her surreptitiously, and sees her meeting the leader of the robbery gang, whom she embraces and kisses, and who bears a resemblance to Guido. He eavesdrops on their conversation with a shotgun microphone, and learns that he was not supposed to have survived the robbery.
Later that day, Sonia boards a flight to Buenos Aires using a false identity. She notices that the boarding time is 20:20 - a double hour. In the final scene, she and the gang leader are photographed together in Buenos Aires.
In 2009, the producer of the film Nicola Giuliano announced that there are a lot of requests from the US to buy the rights to produce an English-language remake.[5]
During the Venice Film Festival the cast and director joked with journalists about the possibility of an American remake with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts in the main roles.[6]