La balia

Lovers of Hollywood blockbusters beware: 'La Balia' is a distinctly European film, and an old-fashioned one at that. This is not to say it's a bad film. Quite on the contrary; it's excellent. It's slow-paced without being long-winded, subtle without being elitist, understated without being incomprehensible, and ever so elegant. This is particularly true for the love scene that highlights the final third of the film. No gratuitous nudity and full-on sex in this film; instead you get an older man teaching his uneducated wet nurse how to write and looking at the way she holds her pen in a way that just sizzles with passion. It's an old-fashioned way of depicting lust, but it's more erotic than any 'steaming' sex scene Hollywood could concoct. And that's just one of the many instances of understatement that make this film so impressive.

The acting, too, is top-notch - subtle but ever so effective. None of the three leading characters (the doctor, his wife, and their wet nurse) undergoes much development, but somehow the actors (particularly Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as the frigid wife with the smouldering passion underneath) give one the impression they do. It's an achievement not to be underestimated.

Of course there are things the makers of this film could learn from Hollywood, one of them being how to use lamps. The first few minutes of the film are so dark (one can barely see facial expressions) it makes one wish the job had been done by a Hollywood crew. Once one gets into the story, however, the natural light and gaslight become a part of the experience, making for an authentic nineteenth-century Italian atmosphere. And then some.

Highly recommended to those who like subtle-but-easy-to-follow arthouse films.