UN VIAGGIO CHIAMATO AMORE (A JOURNEY CALLED LOVE)

Italy, 2002, 96 minutes, Colour.
Laura Morante, Stefano Accorsi, Alessandro Haber.
Directed by Michele Placido.

A Journey Called Love is the story of a poet, Sybilla Aleramo, who lived in Italy in the early part of the 20th century. The film is based on her letters as well as the letters of her lover, Dino Campagna. The film is romantic in its tone, a portrait of people involved in an excessive and mad love – amid attractive settings and with a background of romantic literature.

The film was directed by actor Michele Placido who directed a number of films and followed A Journey Called Love with the ghostly romantic story, Where Are You as well as the portrait of Roman gangs, Romanzo Criminale.

Sybilla is played by talented Italian actress Laura Morante who has appeared as the wife in The Son’s Room. Actor Stefano Accorsi appeared in many films in Italy from the 1990s onward. He was to appear in the subsequent two films directed by Placido. He won the Best Actor award in Venice in 2002 for his performances as Dino Campagna.

1. The title, the focus on the relationship between Sibylla Aleromo and Dino Campana? Their correspondence, their meetings, their passion? The aftermath? The line from one of Campana's poems?

2. Italian literature in the 19th and 20th centuries, centred on Florence, the quality of the literature, the groupings and friendships? The heritage for all Italian literature?

3. The re-creation of the period 1916-17? The footage of World War One and the Italian troops, the campaigns? Florence and the Apennines? The city itself? The homes? The trains, the countryside? Costumes and décor? The film's attention to detail? The musical score and its operatic style? The film akin to the operas being written at that time by Puccini and Verdi?

4. The use of the letters, the voice-over? The revelation of characters? Motivations and moods? The love?

5. The focus on Sibylla, the flashbacks to her early life, her name of Rina? Age, experience, place in the family, devotion to her father, her working for him in the salt factory? Her mother, and her mother's failing mind? The meal sequences? The dinners and the dancing? The two boys? The father and the revelation of his infidelity with the widow? The mother's deterioration and attempted suicide? Her looking after the children? Her being a strong person? At the seaside, enjoying the swimming, with the children? Admired by the men? At the factory, Sebastiano and his attentions, forced, telling her the truth? Her marrying him at a young age, their son? The separation from Sebastian and his taking her son away from her?

6. The correspondence with Dino, the revelation of himself in the letters, his reputation as being mad, his experience, his antagonism towards those in Florence, their losing his manuscript, his accusations of envy? His friendship with Emilio and the letter-writing? The visit, Sibylla and the train, walking in the countryside, the restaurant, the meal, the first encounter, the walk in the mountains, his stripping naked to reveal himself? The beginning of their affair?

7. Her return to Florence, the attentions of Sebastiano, her leaving him and his anger? Her going to Leonetta and Emilio in the morning, their leaving, their giving her the house? Their discussions about Dino and his reputation? His arrival? Life in Florence, the passion between the two? The decision to go to the seaside, the fear for his health? The lyrical scenes in the water? His composing the poems? His sudden outbursts, his violence, turning against Sibylla? The landlady and her friendliness, asking them to leave?

8. Sibylla and her decision to go to his home, meeting his parents, his guardian? The explanations about him? The happy times together, the tensions, his mood swings? The creativity, their confiding in each other?

9. The progress of the war, Leonetta and her grief that Emilio had to go, her anxiety? Sibylla's return and preoccupation with herself, Leonetta's accusations? Sibylla and her finding herself in a mad passion? The background of her feminism, her novel, her writings? Her going to the literati in Florence and accusing them of envy and losing the manuscript? The background of her relationships and affairs with these writers?

10. The aftermath of the war, Emilio and his return? The visiting couple, Karen and Amedeo? Supporting Sibylla? The suddenness of Dino's arrival, their dreading it? The meal together, his giving them the presents? His remembering the poem? Sibylla and her urging him to remember the roses poem, her inability to see that she was goading him, his reactions, the violence against her?

11. The passionate relationship between the two? The love? His madness, his turning to jealousy and violence, his physical brutality towards Sibylla? The final rejection? The final letters?

12. The aftermath and his being put into the institution, dying in 1932? Sibylla and her continued work, writing, member of the Communist Party, dying in 1960? A piece of Italian history and Italian literary history?