The Consequences of Love (2004)

An introverted man's life changes completely when he finds himself attracted to a young bar-maid.

Director:

Paolo Sorrentino

Writer:

Paolo Sorrentino

Stars:

Toni Servillo, Olivia Magnani, Adriano Giannini

19 wins & 22 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Toni Servillo	...	Titta Di Girolamo
Olivia Magnani	...	Sofia
Adriano Giannini	...	Valerio
Antonio Ballerio	...	Bank manager
Gianna Paola Scaffidi	...	Giulia
Nino D'Agata	...	Mafioso
Vincenzo Vitagliano	...	Pippo D'Antò (as Enzo Vitagliano)
Diego Ribon	...	Director
Gilberto Idonea	...	Hired assassin
Giselda Volodi	...	Waitress
Giovanni Vettorazzo	...	Letizia
Gaetano Bruno	...	Hired Assassin
Ana Valeria Dini	...	Reader
Vittorio Di Prima	...	Nitto Lo Riccio
Angela Goodwin	...	Isabella

Storyline

Titta di Girolamo apparently has a regular and tedious life with nothing strange a part from his own name (as he uses to say). He lives in a Hotel in Lugano (Switzerland) since almost ten years, spending his days waiting for something we don't know. His life is too rigid, too detached following a flat routine. Titta ignore everyone and probably he has no emotions at all. Basically there is no story. But one day he decided, breaking all his personal rules, to exchange some words with Sofia, the hotel's barmaid. Incredibly all the situation change, emotions, love, mafia, death come back violently into Titta's life.

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Plot Keywords:

neo noirish | hotel | death | switzerland | mafia | 

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Taglines:

Everyone has a dark secret

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Italy]

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

24 September 2004 (Italy)

Also Known As:

A szerelem következményei

Filming Locations:

Chiasso, Cantone Ticino, Switzerland

Box Office

Budget:

EUR2,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,556,056

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fandango, Indigo Film, Medusa Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The book read by the girl at the table is Louis-Ferdinand Céline's "Voyage au bout de la nuit" (1932).

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Goofs

The barrel of the tracksuit-clad assassin's fired gun, lying on the hotel mattress while the assassin is packing for departure, appears defective, i.e., rubbery, as the silencer barrel is angled downward. Moments later, after he picks up the gun and points it at the hotel room door, the barrel appears longer and straighter, as it was in the earlier scenes.

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Quotes

man at the bar: You are lying!
Titta: Truth is boring.

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Soundtracks

Moses? - I Amn't
Written by Francis Burns
Performed by Mogwai

User Reviews

Intelligent black comedy that urges the viewer to think (after s/he laughs!)

I saw this interesting film back to back with the Chinese/French film "2046" at the recent Dubai Film festival. Both were intelligent works made the same year (2004/2005). Both had the main characters living in a "hotel". In both films, the hotel is more a metaphor of exile than a location. Both dealt with love between a man and a woman. Both had wonderful music and riveting performances. What a coincidence and yet how the two films differ in treatment of the subject!

Somewhere at the beginning of the film, a man walking on a pavement turns to look at a woman and in doing so hits a lamp post. The audience erupts into a volcano of laughter innocently. But isn't that brief shot the synopsis of the film, that entertains you for 2 hours? While the film is a wonderful blend of black comedy (e.g., using a stethoscope to listen to a neighbor's conversation in the adjoining hotel room), the film builds on what Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati had introduced to cinema earlier--stoic faces that leads to comedy quite in contrast to the equally intelligent world of Robin Williams or the heartwarming Danny Kaye. A sudden frenzy of activity transforms an otherwise stoic character while moving money from the hotel to the bank is reminiscent of Tati's works.

But the film is not mere comedy. The anti-automation statement (cash counting and the reaction of the bank staff to the statements relating to it, the dummy that acts as an ineffectual warning to the speeding lady, the reference to "Moulimix" as the fictitious "company" he works for, etc.) are several cues that the director is offering a loaded comedy to the viewer. Laugh, yes, but reflect on it and enjoy further..

The movie's strength lies in is brief, staccato script (by director Paul Sorrentino) that offers comedy that is mixed with philosophy ("Truth is boring," "Dad is dead, but nobody told him," "Bad luck does not exist--it is the invention of the losers and the poor". Then the director goes on to provide you with a fascinating lecture from the main character on insomniacs. You will not sleep through this lecture.

Sorrentino provides entertainment pegged to the subject the Italians know best--the Mafia. It is an existential mafia film.

There is a loaded philosophical sequence where a young girl, sitting opposite the lead character Titta Di Girolamo, reads aloud a passage from a book: "Whatever he wants can happen. What a fine mess. That is the advantage of using memories to excite oneself. You can own memories, you can buy even more beautiful ones. But life is more complicated, human life especially so, a frightening, desperate adventure. Compared to this life of formal perfectionism, cocaine is nothing but a stationmaster's pastime. Let us return to Sophie.. We become poetic as we admire her being, beautiful and reckless, the rhythm of her life flowed from different springs than ours. Ours can only creep along, envious. This force of happiness both exciting and sweet, that animated her, disturbed us. It unsettled us in an enchanting way, but it unsettled us nevertheless. That's the word." The reaction of Titta to the passage is interesting. Titta is himself a cocaine addict. Titta looks at the barmaid of the hotel-his own "formal perfectionism." The following sequence is of Titta calling his own wife and daughter on the phone--a conversation filled more with silence than words. They, too, are Titta's "memories." The final sequence of the film is of Tittas' best friend Dino Guiffre working alone repairing a fault on an electricity pylon in biting wind in a snowy landscape--recalling his own best friend Titta. This is a film about friendship that transcends the mafia.

Since "Truth is boring", the director provides a dessert as part of the fine meal of superb acting (Toni Servillo), good music, clever camera-work (Luca Bigazzi), a beautiful, enigmatic actress (Magnani, grand-daughter of the great, immortal beauty Anna Magnani) and powerful script. The dessert is for the viewer to figure out the truthful feelings of Titta, towards his family members, towards his hotel guests, towards the bar girl, towards the mafia, towards the bankers, towards the hotel owner, and towards his best friend Dino. (Assuming that the viewer accepts the eventuality of how Titta recovered his suitcase from the goons, how does he get inside his car and get it covered with its synthetic cover while he is still inside it?) Perhaps it is Sorrentino's admitted love for the literary works of Louis- Ferdinand Céline that has sculpted the character of Titta. The film's end will remain an enigmatic one for a reflective viewer.