original title:
La spettatrice
directed by:
cast:
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
music:
producer:
production:
Emme Produzioni, Officine Ubu, supported by Ministero della Cultura, with the support of Film Commission Torino Piemonte
distribution:
world sales:
country:
Italy
year:
2004
film run:
100'
format:
35mm - colour
aspect ratio:
1.85:1
sound:
Dolby SRD
release date:
07/05/2004
festivals & awards:
Valeria is a twenty-six year old girl, reserved and lonely girl. She lives in Turin, where she works as an interpreter. Her daily life doesn’t include sentimental relationships, just a ritual and unconscious attention to Massimo, a neighbour of hers, in his forties, whom she spies through the windows of her apartment. Some ‘encounters’ (Valeria will happen to have to translate Massimo himself during a convention) seem to beign building a feeble tie, but the man is still a stranger to her….
When he moves to Rome, Valeria’s existence seems to collapse and following an abrupt impulse, she decides to leave Turin and follow him.
On his trail, Valeria learns of the existence of Flavia, Massimo’s girlfriend. An accident, caused by Valeria herself, makes the two women know each other. For Flavia, that fragile and introverted girl becomes a valuable help in writing her novel on her husband, who died a few years before. For Valeria, that girl become the only tie to her former neighbour.
The image of Massimo and Flavia as a perfect couple, an image that the girl seems to seek loyally, will soon be revealed a a disappointing reality.
Flavia, so strong of herself, will soon reveal to be fragile exactly when she faces the decisions Massimo is asking of her, and rather than build a sentimental relationship with him, she will prefer to continue writing in a book another relationship with a man who had died.
This doesn’t stop Massimo from pursuing his romantic dream. Such a dream will soon feed on Valeria’s presence.
Nonetheless, Valeria, in front of a reality she can only be a spectator of, will run away, leaving Massimo and Flavia behind, with their authentical and lonely destinies.