Film Reviews

Passione D'Amore1981 - Passione d'amore (Italy), a.k.a. -

  • Passion d'Amore
  • Passion der Liebe
Ettore Scola (director); Armando Trovaioli, Ettore Scola, Ruggero Maccari (writers); Franco Committeri (producer); with Bernard Giraudeau,  Jean-Louis Trintignant, Massimo Girotti, Bernard Blier Valeria D'Obici and Alberto Incrocci [melodrama].

A startlingly moving drama, a provocative tale that raises the age-old question of the value of feminine loveliness, and the cost of not meeting that standard of beauty. 

This Cannes Film Festival Award winner tells the sweeping tale of a professional soldier, cavalry officer Bernard Giraudeau, whose appointment to a remote outpost interrupts his affair with a beautiful married woman (Antonelli). Giraudeau discovers to his chagrin that the only woman in the region (D'Obici) is about as appealing as a plate of pickles. Even so, Giraudeau falls madly in love with the woman, utterly forgetting Antonelli. He also forgets that he's a human being at fade-out time, metamorphosing into a epileptic bear!

***

This story of obsessive love between an ugly spinster and a handsome young officer won the Cannes Special Jury Prize in 1981 and is notable for its strong performances from the sensuous Laura Antonelli and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Mad and consumed by desire, this woman manages to overcome the officer's reservations. Steven Sondheim's Tony-award winning musical Passion is based on this story.

***

Giorgio, giovane e aitante ufficiale piemontese di cavalleria, innamorato corrisposto della bella e sana Clara, subisce il fascino funesto della brutta, isterica ed epilettica Fosca. Pi? giusto chiamarlo "Contagio d'amore". Naviga abilmente tra femminismo sforzato e misoginia inconsapevole. L'epilogo ? una delle due o tre stecche di un film quasi infallibile e morbosamente suggestivo. Tratto dal romanzo Fosca (1869) di Iginio Tarchetti. Efebo d'oro 1981 di Agrigento.

***

Ein Draufgänger gerät in den Bann einer häßlichen Frau. Melodram von Ettore Scola Italien 1862: Der adrette Offizier Giorgio (Bernard Giraudeau) verzehrt sich in einer entlegenen Garnison nach seiner fernen Geliebten Clara (Laura Antonelli). Ungewollte Liebesbekundungen erhält er hingegen von der kranken Fosca (Valeria d’Obici). Doch seine Abneigung gegen die äußerlich häßliche Frau wandelt sich in Faszination… Sentimentale Studie über die Kraft der Leidenschaft.

1994 has offered an opportunity for American viewers to catch a snapshot of the career of the well-respected European actor Jean-Louis Trintignant. Earlier this year, with the re-release of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist, the (relatively) youthful Trintignant was featured in an early leading role. In the final installment of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy, Red, a more grizzled Trintignant, twenty-four years older, appears opposite Irene Jacob. Now, with the second theatrical engagement for Ettore Scola's 1981 Passione D'Amore (resurrected because of the success of Steven Sondheim's Tony-winning musical Passion, which is based on this film), we get a performance chronologically midway between the other movies.

Actually, as far as acting goes, Trintignant's performance is one of the high points of Passione D'Amore. Controlled and quietly passionate, the actor never overplays his role -- a qualification that cannot be applied to his two co-stars, Bernard Giraudeau and Valeria D'Obici. Ettore Scola's film contains a number of good ideas, more than one of which is sabotaged by a display of histrionics.

Passione D'Amore is essentially a "Beauty and the Beast" story with a twist. Set in 1862 Italy, Scola's film examines familiar themes from a different perspective. This time, it's the man, Giorgio (Giraudeau), who is the specimen of physical perfection. He becomes the object of an obsessive and unhealthy attraction developed by Fosca (Valeria D'Obici), the homely daughter of Giorgio's commanding officer in the Italian army. As repulsed as he is by her appearance, Giorgio nevertheless attempts to befriend the ailing Fosca, but inadvertently becomes trapped in an unwanted relationship when the woman's doctor (Trintignant) informs him that without his attention, Fosca will die. This situation not only threatens Giorgio's own health, but drives a wedge into his relationship with his alluring lover, Clara (Laura Antonelli).

Of course, the major theme is that, ultimately, there isn't necessarily a connection between physical appearance and love. The affair between the comely pair of Giorgio and Clara proves fragile while the feelings binding the protagonist to Fosca, although taking time to develop, are both deeper and more lasting. Actually, Giorgio is the only one to acknowledge this truth. Even Fosca, desperately longing for affection, doesn't see it, observing that it's impossible to love someone as ugly as she is.

A secondary issue dealt with by Passione D'Amore, and the one that sets it apart from most similar films, is the potentially-devastating nature of any passionate relationship. Love is more often presented as a destructive force than something positive, with the corrosive effects of obsession used as a prime example. It's never clear whether the change in Giorgio's attitude to Fosca is caused by an inner revelation or is the result of her unremitting, slavish adoration eventually eroding his defenses and sanity.

Combine these two themes, and there's fertile territory for a powerful motion picture. Unfortunately, Passione D'Amore too frequently crosses the line separating thoughtful production from overacted melodrama, thus at times eviscerating its potential impact. D'Obici's displays of emotion aren't always appropriate and Giraudeau fails to display the exhibit the range demanded by his character, the only one to really undergo a transformation. Despite these acting deficiencies, the story is strong enough to be disturbing, and worth seeing by all who don't demand a Disney-like ending to every version of this age-old tale.

© 1994 James Berardinelli

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Created: Friday, March 22, 2002; Last Updated: Wednesday, April 28, 2021
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