"I Am Love" (io Sono l' Amore) directed by Luca Guadagnino (2009)
Tilda Swinton in an interview called this film "Visconti on acid" (sic), and those who know the work of Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti will probably concede that this is a good a description as any for this film. Beautifully shot with a feel of 1950's European cinema, I Am Love tells a story about identity, who you are, and also who you are willing to pretend to be when survival depends on reinventing oneself and having to become somebody else. The film is centered around the Rechi family, owners of a large factory in Milan who hold court in the confines of a beautiful house, which in itself is an intimidating force within the plot. Additionally, the film takes an insider's view of a privileged upper class family, who live in their own fabricated world surrounded by luxury and pretense, to shield themselves from a reality they don't particularly wish to acknowledge. Tilda Swinton plays Emma Rechi, the Russian-born wife of Tancredi Rechi who along with his son, stands to inherit the factory from the family patriarch, Emma's father-in-law. In a chance encounter Emma meets Antonio, her son Edo's closest friend and with whom she will begin a passionate love affair with devastating consequences. "I Am Love" is a film that long after it is over,makes us question our own lives and who we are. Nominated for the Golden Globe Award in the Best Foreign Film category, "I Am Love" is without a doubt, a work of art.