In filmmaker Ciro De Caro’s third feature film, a young woman finds herself in a state of limbo amidst a scorching Italian summer and struggles to navigate her conflicting desires for stability and spontaneity.
We first meet the awkward and quiet Giulia (Rosa Palasciano) in a job interview where she gains a position working at a community centre for the elderly. She supervises bingo and sings “Funiculì, Funiculà,” a jaunty Neapolitan song written in the 19th century but famously associated with Luciano Pavarotti. We return to the song repeatedly throughout the film, each time proving more comical as Giulia sings it under changing circumstances.
At work, Giulia resents her outgoing artist colleague, Sergio (Valerio di Benedetto), who is keen to connect with her. Meanwhile, Giulia struggles to accept the reality of her broken relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Alessandro (Matteo Quinzi). The two have finally given up their shared apartment, leaving Giulia homeless with no plan in place. When the community centre shuts down, Giulia finds herself suddenly at a loss of how to live her life. Reluctantly, she turns to Sergio and his sort-of-roommate Ciavoni (Fabrizio Ciavoni), and together they embark on a meandering adventure during which Giulia learns how to live on her own terms and embraces her newfound freedom.
Co-writers of the film, De Caro and Palasciano present an intriguing protagonist who draws us in despite her initially off-putting behaviour. Giulia keeps a used condom after a random hook-up, she accuses her ex-boyfriend of killing her baby because she took a morning-after pill, she secretly urinates on her ex-boyfriend’s sister’s toothbrush, and she accuses Sergio of colluding to shut down the community centre out of jealousy. Her erratic, childish behaviour and wild accusations do not endear her to viewers, but throughout the film we come to appreciate Giulia and empathize with her internal struggles. Giulia clings to her desires to become a mother and stay close to the sea, often picking up toys left roadside and returning again and again to the beach. The wild freedom and solitude of the sea appeals to her. She is an independent wanderer trapped in a society that doesn’t appreciate alternative lifestyles. She struggles socially, desiring companionship but simultaneously rejecting it in favour of her own company. Over the course of the film, Giulia comes to embrace her independent nature and newfound freedom in living moment to moment. Palasciano also wonderfully uses body language and mannerisms to convey Giulia’s social awkwardness and eccentric personality.
While Giulia becomes more aloof and independent, Sergio becomes clingier, resulting in entertaining sequences involving Sergio leading over-the-top searches for the elusive Giulia. At one point he leaps into a rough sea intent on swimming out to see if she’s drowned, forcing his friends to rescue him; another time, distant sounds of “Funiculì, Funiculà” send him scrambling to find her. Unfortunately for Sergio, the more attached he becomes the further she slips from his grasp. He remains in denial about their relationship dynamic, unable to accept that Giulia often actively rejects him. Her behaviour frustrates him, but even after she screams unfounded accusations in his face he continues to pine for her. He watches jealously as Giulia instead befriends Ciovani, his laidback friend who easily rolls with Giulia’s spontaneity.
As with his first two films, De Caro once again presents a quirky, adult coming-of-age story that deals broadly with themes of self-discovery, relationship dynamics, and freedom. In Giulia, he reunites with his Spaghetti Story actors Di Benedetto and Cristian Di Sante (who plays a friend of Sergio in Giulia) and finds a nuanced gem in the expressive Rosa Palasciano.
Giulia contains a quietly compelling narrative that sneaks up on viewers much the way Giulia herself does. The film also intersperses humour and social satire throughout, including a subtle running joke about pandemic behaviours. While it takes time to warm up to the protagonist, we revel in the absurdity and by the film’s end we are living vicariously through Giulia as she finds inner tranquility and complete freedom in the blissfully calm sea.
The film makes its world premiere at this year’s Venice Days, an independent division of the Venice Film Festival.
Score: B