La bella estate Laura Luchetti

Turin, 1938. “In those days it was always a holiday,” wrote Pavese. On the shore of a lake, a group of young people picnic, laugh and sing. Among them is Ginia (Yile Vianello), who has come from the countryside with her brother Severino (Nicolas Maupas). When other boys and girls arrive by boat, Ginia is unsettled by a young dark-haired woman (Deva Cassel) in white underwear who dives in under the surprised gaze of the others. While Ginia, the blonde, works in a dressmaking workshop, Amelia, the brunette, models for painters. Despite their different social backgrounds, the two grow close, and Amelia introduces Ginia to Turin’s bohemian circles. Ginia is drawn to this girl who collects painters and lovers, and wants to be like her. She has met Guido, one of the painters, who seems interested in her. “What is making love?” she asks her friend. “It’s being important to someone for a few hours.” So Ginia does it for the first time with Guido. A very sensual scene at first, but one that soon reveals this was not Ginia’s true desire. Her attraction to Amalia is plain. At a ball, as Amalia is courted and asked to dance by a doctor, she draws Ginia into a dance, filmed with great sensuality by the camera of Diégo Romero Suarez Llanos, which gradually moves closer, as if caressing them. Their faces, in close-up, draw nearer and nearer until they kiss, in a languid choreography. A scene that seems to slip away from reality, like many others set in nature, which is very present throughout the film: water, bronze-tinted leaves, insects, a little squirrel.

The meeting of two worlds, the story of love at first sight, a subtle reflection on female desire and the social conditions of that troubled time. Sophie Hunger’s superb song Walzer für Niemand closes this delicate film, with its meticulous settings and great poetry.

Not suitable for under-16s.