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Michela Cescon as Sonia
Photo: Strand Releasing

PRIMO AMORE
Directed by: Matteo Garrone.
Produced by: Domenico Procacci.
Written by: Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso & Vitaliano Trevisan.
Director of Photography: Marco Onorato.
Edited by: Marco Spoletini.
Music by: Banda Osiris.
Released by: Strand Releasing.
Language: Italian with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Italy. 94 min. Not Rated.
With: Michela Cescon & Vitaliano Trevisan.

Just as he molds objects into being, goldsmith Vittorio (co-writer Vitaliano Trevisan) remakes a willing Galatea, 25-year-old Sonia (Michela Cescon), in his own image. Meeting on a blind date, he admits to her he’s surprised; he thought she would be thinner. She offers to leave the cafe, but he insists on her staying. At 125 pounds, Sonia is not all overweight, which the film makes abundantly clear - she models nude for an art class. They soon move in together, living isolated outside of Verona. Afterwards at a swimming pool, Sonia examines the lithe body of an attractive blond woman and silently castigates herself. She then willingly follows Vittorio's dictates, eating vegetables while he eats anything he likes. (In bed, she also does all the work.) She loses weight and continues the regiment because, as she reassures her lover, “you like me this way.” Vittorio, on the other hand, is hardly a paradigm of male pulchritude. In his early forties, his body is beginning to sag. Possibly medicated, he reveals little behind his steely blue eyes.

The motivations of the characters, as well as the direction, are straightforward, Sonia being a type easy to recognize. (Even in the recent frothy French film, Look at Me, a slender young woman bemoans the increase of a few grams.) She is often filmed alone, or when she is among others, she’s silent. With many shots from her point of view, the film clearly sympathizes with her. Connecting the tenuous expository scenes are hard-hitting moments as Sonia continues to starve herself, and Vittorio offers rewards and punishments. As her vertebrae become more visible, the film turns into a visceral experience, while backhandedly attacking the male prerogative. The thoroughly lived-in and subtle performances (especially Michela Cescon in a no-holds-barred performance), make sure the ironically titled Primo Amore never veers into a diatribe or melodrama. Kent Turner
April 6, 2005

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