OVUNQUE SEI (WHEREVER YOU ARE)
Italy, 2004, 86 minutes, Colour.
Stefano Accorsi, Barbora Belova, Stefano Dionisi.
Directed by Michele Placido.
Ovunque Sei is a romantic story with a ghost theme – but which does not work very well. Michele Placido, actor and director (Long Journey of Love) for which Stefano Accorsi won the best actor in Venice in 2002, has a committee to make a film which might have been an interesting perspective on love and relationships. However, it has a lot of portentous, pretentious dialogue with a metaphysical touch about relationships, psychology and physiology, memories and consciousness.
1.A romantic melodrama? Italian style? The poor critical reception of the film in Italy? How well does it travel?
2.The romance, the supernatural? The dialogue – and the touches of the banal? The credibility of the plot – even for this kind of ghost story?
3.The basic situation: New Year’s Eve, Matteo and his love for Emma, her work at the hospital, surgery? His ambulance work? Seeing him rowing on the river, love for Emma, for his daughter? The New Year’s Eve celebration, in the hospital, at the restaurant, Emma with Leonardo, finally dancing with Matteo, lovemaking in the car, returning home, New Year’s Day with their daughter? The daughter’s promise that her father will take her for an ambulance ride on the eighth of July?
4.Emma, her background, from Slovakia, her relationship with her mother? The mother looking after the daughter? Working in the surgery, the tension with Matteo, seeming to accuse him of having an affair? After the operation, Leonardo and his approach, her giving in unwillingly? Return home?
5.Matteo, his classes, Elena and her not knowing whether she could be an ambulance person? Going home, taking Elena on the various jobs, having to deal with the accidents? Leonardo and his upset with Emma, the phone call, distraction, ploughing into the ambulance, the ambulance and the Tiber?
6.Did Matteo die, who rescued him? Elena surviving? With the gypsies, their looking after Matteo? His getting the bus, going home, his deciding not to stay, his having talked about wanting a new life?
7.His life away from home, with Elena, her studies, the professor? Moving in and out of her life? His love for her?
8.Emma, spending the day at the river, their daughter’s grief? The time passing, Leonardo and his attentions? Her eventually agreeing to be a partner with Leonardo? Her daughter’s reaction, suspicious at first, then agreeable?
9.Matteo and Elena, the nude bedroom scene – evocative or risible? His being a ghost – a kind of purgatory, going to a heaven? His leaving Emma and his daughter with Leonardo?
10.The discussions about love, physics, metaphysics, the nature of memory, the nature of the mind and consciousness? How well did this metaphysical dialogue tie in with the romantic dialogue?
