Come Undone: When Desire Meets Real Life Shadows
Some films don’t require extravagant sets or multi-million dollar advertising campaigns to secure their place in the memories of cinema. Come Undone, or Cosa Voglio di Più, a film by Silvio Soldini, is one of such films. Though it’s an intimate drama which first made its way into festivals, the attention which shadowed the film when it was made available in theatres demonstrated the film’s presence; conversations about love, fidelity, and the unbearable weight of desire burgeoned. It is not merely the storyline of two people deeply engrossed in an affair that distinguishes this film. It is how their interactions, performed by actors Alba Rohrwacher and Pierfrancesco Favino, felt biographical – to the point that people lost the distinction of reality and constructed world of cinema.
The Story That Felt Too Close for Comfort
The film follows Anna, played by Rohrwacher, who is supposedly in a happy relationship with a man named Alessio, played by Giuseppe Battiston. In the society that we live in, Anna’s life appears to be perfectly constructed, containing all the neccesary and vital elements; a faithful husband, a consistent daily routine, and the assumptions that most middle class people carry. Yet, this very assumption of a life provokes a feeling of dystopia. When she meets Domenico, a father and husband, played by Pierfrancesco Favino, the two shared a spark which leads to an affair that, in the end, results in chaos for their lives.
Adultery is often shrouded in sadness, guilt and dreams that fade when reality paints an unwelcoming picture. When we consider Anna’s choices towards the end of the film, it is the primal nature of her desires that is reflected in her choices, rather than any moral lesson that one can derive. That Anna is assumed to be on a love journey only serves to illustrate how misguided the evaluation of her dilemma is. That the story spoke to a cross culture audience is perhaps due to the social fabric of this country, that is numerous works of literature, films, from the Bengali Katha to hits like Silsila or Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. Unlike many Bollywood hits, Come Undone chose to emphasize the emotional aspect and the pain of longing. It dealt with longing like a wound, instead of trivializing it like most Bollywood films do, to create an adventure.
Alba Rohrwacher had already been conferred the title of one of the most brilliant actresses in Italy, when she decided to play the role of Anna. Known for her tranquility and concentration in real, she not only performed but also shared a deeper connection with the character. In conversations, Rohrwacher spoke of her fascination with characters that reside in the “ in- between zones.”
Her own journey was different. She was the product of a German Father and Italian Mother. She was a student of medicine and later an actress. That mix of a cling person and a delicate artistic world seemed to sink into the way she acted the role of Anna. Anna, in many ways, is a reflection of Rohrwacher herself; an intelligent woman struggling to balance a responsibility and an impulse, forever in a state of reflection over whether her emotions betray her or define her.
The Indian audience found a parallel with the women in the neighborhood and the house. The women who, despite the family functions portray a bomber smile yet, suffer within the turmoil. Rohrwacher’s Anna was not unreasonably a villain. She was machine and that machine became a reflect many did not want to face.
Pierfrancesco Favino: the Everyman With A Secret.
If Rohrwacher framed glass like fragility, Pipfrancesco Favino bestowed Domenico with a glass charm that thrives on the everyday. Favino was not the un conventional “handsome hero” and that was the point. He was the type of person you would actually believe to meet at a small restaurant or walk past in the office.
Parallel to Favino’s career journey, Domenico’s character also had a double life. For many years, Favino juggled between Italian cinema and Hollywood with Angels & Demons and World War Z. As with many Italian critics, Favino’s career, like Domenico’s marriage, was divided between two worlds — one mundane and one adventurous. In one interview, Favino acknowledged he was attracted to characters where men had to conceal deep sadness. He understood that his upbringing came from a culture where men were not supposed to be emotionally expressive.
For Indian viewers, Domenico was akin to Devdas, and to some modern-day husbands, who battle between duty and desire. The film triggered a debate in the middle-class circles of India as to whether Domenico was self-absorbed or simply human.
When Indian Mimimalism encountered Italian Minimalism,
One of the intriguing elements of the film’s reception in India was the comparison with the Bollywood treatment of similar subjects. As with Come Undone, Indian audiences expect music and overwhelming drama for scenes with silence, sideways glances, and hotel room awkwardness. However, Soldini’s unadorned treatment is the one that made the audience painfully aware of real life.
Critics in India have reviewed works and expressed how sans melodrama actually makes the pain worse. There was no therapeutic song to ease the pain. There was no eloquent resolution that did anything other than soothe. There was only the persistent ache. It resembled, to an extent, the very same things that happen in life that have no resolution.
What came to be Known as, ‘Come Undone’, was filmed under close to which was deemed, ‘close to peanuts’. The locale was chosen in the light of easy access than glamorous cinema he might have imagined. Silvio, whom some might know as the man behind ‘Bread and Tuliips’ insisted on the maximum use of sunlight. The film’s atmosphere turned almost like that of a ‘moving picture’ and the ‘heat of the moments’ of the couples seemed not like a ‘cinemacter’, but mere peeks into life’s most private moments.
“Come Undone’s” director, Rohrwacher, as people in town would be aware, submerged herself in the lives of many women to hear and learn of their extramarital affairs, the guilt that comes and the pleasures that come attached, as well as the entire cultural, moral and ethical exhaustion of the situation. On the counter side, Favino, was a man who liked to set a file of the spontaneous very late and did not give herself the permission to practice or rehearse the ‘private’ scene, in order to creat more believability about the Domenco’s pause.
Interestingly, it turned out there were discussions in the crew on how explicit the love scenes should be. Soldini argued for authenticity but carefully avoided letting the scenes become voyeuristic. The outcome was a balance: scenes that were intimate but awkward enough to indicate the true nature of the covert encounters.
The Media Buzz That Caught Everyone Off Guard
The film was in the making for a while, but not much was said about it until recently. Once the festival screenings began, critics from Italy and beyond were surprised about the film’s shameless portrayal of reality— in a good way. The film began to circulate in India through film festivals, and later on, streaming. Once this happened, the buzz around it reached extraordinary status. People began to draw parallels to the film and real life, said to be based on Monica and Domenico’s story, gossip that was said to be about ordinary love affairs and even about popular people.
The film also sparked numerous controversies on an ethical level. Many catfights were observed and while a good lot opposed Anna on personal grounds, others rationally argued in favor of her, stating her character was a display of the contemporary women who are subjugated to monotonous lifestyles.
What the Audiences Missed
In the midst of all the debate about morality, one theme that went largely unnoticed was class. With Alessio, Anna had economic stagnation but also a certain stability. With Domenico, there was movement and, though married, change. Soldini was not only expressing desire but also the discontent of a generation trapped within the tedium of a lower middle class lifestyle. For the Indian audiences, this was a certain latent layer that needed to be unpacked. This is similar to how in a city likeDelhi or Mumbai, there is a hunger to escape, not merely lust that drives people to have affairs.
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