THE CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE
aka LE CONSEGUENZE DELL'AMORE

Year: 2004
UK: Artificial Eye
Cast: Toni Servillo, Olivia Magnani, Adriana Giannini, Raffaele Pisu, Angela Goodwin, Diego Ribon, Giselda Volodi, Giovanni Vettorazzo, Ana Valeria Dini, Gianna Paola Scaffidi, Antonio Ballerio, Gilberto Idonea, Gaetano Bruno, Enzo Vitagliano, Nino D'Agata, Vittorio Di Prima
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Country: Italy
Language: Italian (English subtitles)
UK: 104 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and hard drug use
UK Release Date: 27 May 2005
(in Italian)
UK Distributor

Synopsis

Everyone harbours a dark secret. But it's obvious that former stockbroker Titta Di Girolamo (masterfully played by actor Toni Servillo), has more than one. Why else would a fifty-year-old man from southern Italy choose to live for eight years in an anonymous hotel room in an anonymous town in Switzerland?

He once lost money owned by the mafia on the stock market and has been punished in a gruesome way: he is to deliver the mafia's money to the bank once a week and has no life for himself. Eight years of not working, eight years of silence and cigarettes, sitting in the lobby or the hotel bar, elegantly dressed but never allowing himself any luxuries. A nullifying routine, he's constantly waiting for something daring to happen, but what will happen?

Titta observes; he impassively peers at the life that goes by in front of him, revealing neither sentiment nor emotion. Or so it appears...He watches the hotel guests and especially the bartender, Sofia, (Olivia Magnani, granddaughter of Italy's famous actress Anna Magnani), but never acknowledges her attempts to be friendly. At night, he plays cards with the former hotel owners who lost the hotel to gambling, before he gets ready for another night without sleep. His detachment from the world is complete, until he does begin to communicate with Sofia - at this point his neatly organised world turns upside down...

THE CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE is a story about a man who discovers love too late in his life. On the level of film language, the film is constantly inventive, with Luca Bigazzi's sharply defined photography mapping out the often empty spaces of Titta di Girolamo's world, and the highly atmospheric use of music.

Paolo Sorrentino was born in Naples in 1970. He started his career in film writing screenplays, but moved on the direct short films. His first film ONE MAN UP (L'UOMO IN PIU) premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2001.