YOU CAN'T SAVE YOURSELF ALONE/ NESSUNO SI SALVA DA SOLO

Italy, 2015, 103 minutes, Colour.
Riccardo Scamacio, Jasmine Trinca, Anna Galiena, Angela Molina.
Directed by. Sergio Castellitto.

Something of a two-hander drama. The centre is a meal at a restaurant where a separated couple meet, bicker, remember, feel their love. He is played by Riccardo Scamarcio, she by Jasmine Trinca.

The screenplay was written by Margaret Mazzentini and directed by her husband Sergio Castellitto. (they had also collaborated on her novels/films, Don’t Move (2004) and Twice Born (2012), both with Penelope Cruz.

The flashbacks trace their meeting, attraction, falling in love, marriage, birth of a child, her changing, his work, infidelilty. Not without hope.

1. The title? With reference to Delia and Gaetano? The love, the marriage, family? Alienation? Reconciliation?

2. The present and the range of flashbacks, building up the story of Delia and Gaetano?

3. The main action in the present, Delia preparing to go out, leaving her son? Gaetano and his arrival at the restaurant? The meal, the discussions during the meal, the insertion of the flashbacks? The revelation of each character from the past and the present? Changes? The other people in the restaurant, observations? Delia and her anger, throwing the ice cream? The kindly couple talking at the end?

4. The focus of Delia, her health work, her appearance, the difficulties? Her relationship with her dominating mother? The encounter with Gaetano? The attraction, his manner, talk? The going out, in love, sexual relationship? Their eventually marrying – on the beach, throwing the bouquet and the priest catching it? Pregnancy? The effect of the child? Health issues, food, exercise, Delia becoming more and more protective? Her physical transformation? Her accomplishments?

5. Gaeatano, pleasant, the touch of the womaniser, the encounter with Delia, the banter, going out, her criticisms of his lifestyle? The sexual relationship? The wedding? His writing, writer’s block, writing for television and film? His becoming preoccupied?

6. The buildup of the clash between the two? Delia and her sense of alienation, becoming more demanding, the touch of obsession? Gaetano, becoming lax, the blonde girlfriend and the relationship? Delia’s reaction?

7. The buildup to the separation, the angers, the custody of the child? Meeting to discuss the separation, possible divorce, possessions, custody…?

8. The focus of the two and how they loved each other, the exasperations of their married life and the effects? The meal, the kindly couple, the possibility of some kind of reconciliation? Delia watching, Gaetano leaving, going down the street, waving?