Film Review
Ariane Ascaride takes a break from her run of Marseille-situated dramas
directed by her husband Robert Guédiguian and heads off to
southern Italy for this racially themed melodrama directed by up and
coming Italian filmmaker Stefano Consiglio. After his documentary
L'Amore e basta, which
revolved around homosexual relationships, Consiglio turns his attention
to a theme that is very current in Italy at the moment, namely racial
intolerance.
L'Amour ne pardonne pas
has some striking similarities with Rainer Werner Fassbinder's
Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and
Paul Vecchiali's
Corps à coeur
(1979), although these earlier films deal somewhat more convincingly
with the subject, and in a far more humane and involving manner.
Despite strong performances from Ascaride and co-star Helmi Dridi, a
Tunisian actor with great charm and presence,
L'Amour ne pardonne pas has
difficulty engaging the spectator's interest and singularly fails to
engage the emotions. Consiglio is so preoccupied with the part of
the film dealing with racism that he neglects the central romance,
which becomes not much more than a catalyst for the hysterical
psychodrama that preoccupies most of the second half of the film.
In Fassbinder's film, the romance is firmly established before the
racial themes come to the fore, and this is what makes his film so
powerful and moving. By contrast, Consiglio's film comes across
as mainly an anti-racist rant, its human dimension reduced to a
clichéd reworking of the 'love conquers all' scenario.
Some beautiful moments, most supplied by the lead actors, do not
prevent this from being a hugely disappointing film.
© James Travers 2015
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Film Synopsis
Adrianne is a Frenchwoman in her late fifties who lives a peaceful life
in a small town in the south of Italy. It has been some years
since her husband died and she divides her time between her job as a
nurse, her grown-up daughter and her granddaughter. One day, her
work brings her into contact with Mohammed, a Moroccan man in his
twenties. Despite their different backgrounds and the immense age
gap, Adrianne and Mohammed soon realise they are in love and begin a
relationship. In this part of Italy, racism is rife and the
couple's blossoming love affair soon comes under threat...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.