(2009; Io sono l'armore, Italian, English, Russian) Preparing a celebratory feast for grandfather Edoardo's birthday, in Milan the wealthy (factory to fortune) Recchi family, living in luxury with servants, awaits the patriarch's decision to retire and proclaim his successors to the textile business. First he names his son Trancredi (Pippo Debono) and then his grandson Edoardo Jr (Flavio Parenti), who has brought with him his girlfriend Eva Ugolini (Diane Fleri), because, the elder says, two will be needed to replace him.

Edoardo's dearest friend and a chef, Antonio Biscaglia (Edoardo Gabbriellini), delivers a cake, a gift following their race earlier in the day. Edoardo's mother Emma (Tilda Swinton) catches just a glimpse of her son's bearded companion.

Vibrantly visual and sensual ("too much of everything") - more so than Michelangelo Antonioni's Milano - director Luca Guadagnino's cinematic cuisine, accompanied by a score composed by post-minimalist John Adams, has been beautifully prepared (co-written with Barbara Alberti, Ivan Cotroneo, and Walter Fasano), as elegant as one of Biscaglia's exquisite meals, but the pretty hors d'œuvres and soup are interrupted by a tragic incident, leaving the meal without further substance.

Months later, following the grandfather's death, when picking up from the cleaners Edoardo's blazer, Emma comes into possession of a CD containing a note written by her daughter Elisabetta (Alba Rohrwacher) of her new love affair. Antonio enlists Edoardo's enthusiasm for opening a restaurant in Sanremo; Tancredi says to Emma (born in Russia where she was called Kitesh, she stopped being Russian in Milan and became Italian, assuming the new name her husband had given her) that his idealistic son Edoardo, anchored in the past, isn't ready to handle major decisions yet and still needs guidance.

Emma nearly swoons over the prawns and risotto Antonio serves her, Betta, and her mother-in-law Allegra "Rori" (Marisa Berenson).

Following Betta's returning from an art school in London and snubbing her former boyfriend Gregorio - in discovering her identity as a lesbian, she has turned aside from painting for photography - she goes to Nice for an art exhibition: "'Happy' is a word that makes one sad." A book of art, a representation of art as a representation of nature, will later reveal a secret love affair.

Near a Russian Orthodox Church in Sanremo, Emma notices Antonio and pursues him, but upon their face-to-face encounter she's first flustered, then overcome by a frenzy of impulsive infatuation. Their alfresco love-making takes place in the countryside where Antonio collects herbs for his cooking; in London an American from India, Shai Kubelkian (Waris Ahluwalia), makes an attractive offer to buy the family company.

Left with more money (a representation of worth) than ever before, the Recchis have nothing else to sustain themselves.

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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