A woman’s promiscuous past becomes a constant reminder in the present and a motive for every obscure step she takes.
Giuseppe Tornatore has proved time and time again over the decades that his diversity knows no limits. I remember watching Cinema Paradiso (1988) in the theatres as a kid, and even though there was a lot I missed back then (I caught up the second and third time I watched in the years that followed), I believe it solidified the foundation of my love about cinema. The Unknown Woman, one of the three films he made in the noughties – with Malena (2000) and Baarìa (2009) being the other two – is a suspenseful, dramatic, physical but also thought-provoking mystery/thriller about the search for hope. It is about a woman driven by her past sufferings in the hopes that life will smile at her for once. Tornatore, though, doesn’t believe that the past should be left in the past. He believes it will always be part of us, no matter how hard we try to run away from it.
Kseniya Rappoport and Clara Dossena steal the show on screen. Ennio Morricone (over the last 60 years!) fills the atmosphere with doubt with his tachycardic music, amplifying and constantly prolonging the suspense until the film’s denouement. But here’s the thing:
“It’s not a film until it’s edited” – Michael Kahn
Massimo Quaglia, Tornatore’s loyal editor, “stitches” the film together with artistry. The flashback’s metric montage invisibly permeates the present with extremely meticulous match cuts. Outstanding chemistry!
Most of the time, we think we’ve had it bad in life. Guess what? While sometimes life gives us the shortest straw, to others, she gives nothing but pain. Why? Because she can. The pandemic but also the unfathomable, bottomless human buffoonery have proved, once more, that life is not to be taken for granted. Make the most of it and…
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Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!
Stay safe!
