La corrispondenza (2016) User Reviews

La Corrispondenza is a wasted potential with dragging screenplay.

[shobanchittuprolu · 6/10 · 17 August 2016]

La Corrispondenza (2016) : Giuseppe Tornatore has earned a good fame in International cinema with Cinema Paradiso (1988) and since then his movies are always gaining attention.Love is the key element is his movies which is shown in different ways and views.The Correspondence is such love story which has bit twisty plot.

Plot: Amy Ryan (Olga Kurylenko),a student and stunt woman and Ed Phoerum (Jeremy Irons),a renowned astrophysicist have affair for 6 years.When Ed goes out of town,both of them keep in touch by text and video chats.But shockingly Amy hears the news that Ed died 2 days back due to cancer.But still she receives messages and gifts under the name of Ed.She never feels lonely since then but still surprised about the mysterious messages and gifts.How did she cope with her life and how is Ed texting and sending gifts even after his death forms rest of the story..

Plus Points:

1)Plot: Though this plot resembles 1997 Korean movie The Letters which is remade in Hollywood as P.S.I Love You where a heartbroken girl receives messages or letters from their deceased love.Correspondence also has same plot but with new backdrop.

2)Music: Music by Enno Moricone is decent and gave the right mood at right place.

3)Performances: Both the lead actors performance is decent.

Minus Points:

1)Screenplay: Screenplay is the major drawback for this film.With such talented cast and crew,Giuseppe wasted with such boring screenplay.Except the initial 20 Min's,rest of the movie starts getting lagged with every scene.

2)Duration: With 2hr duration, this movie seems boring after 30 Min's. into the movie.

So, La Corrispondenza is a wasted potential with dragging screenplay.

My rating 5.5/10

Exasperated and exasperating distortion of our time's Cyber Idyll

[hushsara · 5/10 · 18 January 2016]

Years and years ago, Pier Paolo Pasolini would have solved this 116 minutes film with one sentence: "Death does not mean a lack of communication; it is the impossibility of being understood."

And while this concept (twisted, distorted, disfigured) still remains interesting enough, Tornatore's prolix (plain redundant right there in the middle) writing swings between borderline creepy and full-on cheesy.

Among the tear-jerking treacle, his pseudo-philosophical, re-adjusted to the contingency, take on astronomy -- dead stars and all -- is accurate and poetic enough, and really the only element (almost) giving the movie an appearance of tightness, thickness and consistency in its back and forth, back and forth rhythm.

Your name 11 times

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 23 October 2017]

Ed Phoerum (Jeremy Irons) is a renowned astrophysicist having a six year affair with a student Amy Ryan (Olga Kurylenko) who is also an actress/stunt woman. The opening scene was rather drippy which sets up for the cheesy love scenes that will make it impossible for couples to have normal relationships after watching this film. Knowing he is dying, Ed sets up for text messages, letters, and recorded DVDs to be sent to Amy from beyond the grave. Ed was very astute and knew Amy's schedule and her too.

One of the discussions is String Theory which includes parallel and alternate universes from which we can have some sort on immortality of be able to communicate with each other. Amy realizes Ed lives on his her life as a dead star whose remnant we still see.

This is not a film for everyone and requires a hopeless romantic with a little bit of a geek background. It is way too long at 2 hours as the Ed run around grew tiresome.

Guide: F-word and nudity (Olga Kurylenko)

Not Giuseppe.

[saqlainali-06437 · 7/10 · 22 July 2018]

As compare to his former, exceptionally great, movies like Cinema Paradiso, The Legend of 1900, Malena, Sttano Tutti Bene(Everbodys Fine), Baaria, The Best Offer and The Unknown Women, his Correspondence is somewhat left me in depsair. His direction skills are peerless with impulse of emotions and feeling in most of his movies with touch of comedy. Correspondence is what i will call not a movie of Guissepe.

Deep love story

[valadas · 7/10 · 13 July 2023]

A deep love relationship develops itself between Ed Phoerum, a professor and astronomer and Amy Ryan, a young student and movie actress, despite the fact that not only she is much younger than him but also they are apart and at some distance from each other, seldom meeting physically. But he sends her videos with passionate messages. He suffers a sudden death (he was very ill) which does not impede their relationship going ahead like if he was still alive because he had a plan consisting of having written many messages to her and made some videos that without her knowledge he has given to people he knew with the charge of giving them to her at periodic dates coinciding with some important events of her life . This combines her anguish with the pleasure she has on reading his messages (in letter form) and watching his videos and led her to look for those people to get information and take the letters and videos. A quite strange story but well told, directed, acted and filmed.

Tornatore's Latest Misses the Mark

[larrys3 · 4/10 · 25 July 2017]

Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore has brought many terrific films to the silver screen including "Malena", and what I would regard as an all- time classic movie "Cinema Paradiso". Some may regard this latest effort as romantic but others will look at it as quite pretentious, and unfortunately I fall into that latter category.

The fine actor Jeremy Irons portrays Astrophysics Professor Dr. Ed Phoerum who for six years has been in a passionate relationship with one of his former students Amy Ryan, played by Olga Kurylenko. Attending a seminar one day,she learns of his death and goes into sudden shock and grief. However, she begins to receive many cryptic messages, CD's, and other communications which seem to indicate that he's somehow aware of her activities each day.

Amy begins to investigate how this is possible and will slowly learn the truth, so that by the end of the film it will all be revealed. Sorry, but it all seemed quite preposterous to me, and additionally I was never able to connect emotionally to the characters here.

An Idyll - a short period in which everything is wonderful.

[gradyharp · 9/10 · 4 July 2017]

Writer/Director Giuseppe Tornatore ('Cinema Paradiso', 'The Legend of 1900', 'The Best Offer', 'Everybody's Fine') has created a love song to Italy, science, astronomy, writing as an art form, communication and that fragile love between an older professor and a student. In other's hands this combination may come saccharine and a silly treatise on life and whether we die or become part of the universe spirit. Tornatore makes it a sensitive and delicate poem of a film.

Amy Ryan (Olga Kurylenko), a young student and stunt woman for films and Ed Phoerum (Jeremy Irons), a highly respected astrophysicist have an affair for 6 years, primarily an affair over distance. When Ed goes out of town, both of them keep in touch by text and video chats. All seems well and carries a light touch of humor as well as longing until Amy discovers Ed died 2 days back due to cancer. But still she receives messages and gifts under the name of Ed. Amy meets Ed's family (Shauna Macdonald, Oscar Sanders) and gradually assimilates with them. She ceases to feel lonely with the frequent input of videos she receives at strange intervals but remains surprised about the mysterious messages and gifts. How Amy copes with her life and how is Ed texting and sending gifts even after his death forms is brought to a satisfying if over long conclusion to the film. Ed suggests that she will find another man and very briefly in the end Amy encounters an old acquaintance Jason (Simon Anthon Johns), suggesting that Ed's last prediction will be fulfilled.

Tornatore's writing includes some wonderful information about the stars and the theories of their life span as well as other Astronomical insights and mixes these with love poems that are radiant as delivered by both Irons and Kurylenko. Though the film opens with a passionate love scene we both hear in darkness and eventually see as the film progresses, the remainder of the film is a conversation via cell phone and video and for those of us who have problems with the obsession with those forms of interaction in today's society, Tornatore manages to soften the mechanical emptiness of their use.

Ennio Morricone provides the musical score and Fabio Zamarion the exquisite photography of Italy, Scotland, and the UK. The film is in need of some editing but the spirit is there and Tornatore's little gem restores our faith that fine films are still being made.

Dull correspondence

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 5 June 2019]

Watched 'Correspondence' for many reasons. The concept was intriguing and is hardly an outdated one. Ennio Morricone is one of cinema's best and most iconic composers, consider the likes of 'Cinema Paradiso', 'The Mission' and 'The Good, The Bad and the Ugly' particularly amazing. Do like some of Giuseppe Tornatore's other work, 'Cinema Paradiso' is a masterpiece. Also really like Olga Kurylenko and Jeremy Irons, am a fan of Irons actually.

Unfortunately, 'Correspondence' left me underwhelmed. It is not as bad as the critics made out from personal opinion (though do share most of their problems with it), but it is a case of a good concept but mixed bag/average execution so can understand too the disappointment. Should have been much better considering the amount of talent and potential involved, with all having done much better work (all before and none since).

The two best things about 'Correspondence' are Kurylenko and Irons. Kurylenko is the one who has to carry the film and found her performance very committed and heartfelt as the one character 'Correspondence' tries to properly develop. Irons matches her sympathetically and brings his usual gravitas and that wonderfully distinctive voice to Ed. Despite being apart almost all the time, corresponding through texts, emails and video messages, the chemistry between the two is believable in that one can feel that they're in love and the big age gap between them is nowhere near as creepy to me than it sounds.

'Correspondence' is beautifully filmed and makes the most of the locations. All of which look great, stunning in the case of Italy. Morricone's score is nowhere near among his best work, but is suitably hypnotic and understated. There were moments in the script, everything with Ed's job was somewhat interesting and actually from personal view Ed's final speech was quite poignant. Much of it though is down to Irons' delivery of it, like the rest of the film's voice overs (which did not have anywhere near the same amount of impact) when it comes to acting not many actors delivered voice overs and narrations in the same way Irons did.

However, 'Correspondence' does have a lot of problems. A major problem is that the script is very limp and very rarely sounds natural. That is including most of the voice overs, which tend to ramble. Tornatore's direction is pretty uninspired, nowhere near close to amateurish but the pace especially needed to be tighter and somehow it didn't feel like Tornatore, other films of his had more emotional impact, were more sweeping and weren't as "safe". The supporting characters were very bland and stock, and in the acting department Kurylenko and Irons were the only ones that stood out (do not remember the other performances at all).

It's the story and pace that fare worst. The pace is a vast majority of the time, well almost the whole film, very pedestrian and never really comes to life. Am certain that it was intended to be deliberate, but the script and story (performances too) needed to compel to make that not be a weakness and 'Correspondence' failed on all three. The story started off quite well but will admit to having lost interest under halfway through when the mystery aspect of the film came in, then the film became dull and episodic. Then from just over halfway through, it became increasingly duller and more preposterous, some of it for me bordered on confusing too.

Summing up, liked the concept but the film was wanting in too many areas. 5/10

Some people will love it, some people will hate it

[skyx26 · 8/10 · 27 December 2016]

First of all: this is NOT Cinema Paradiso. I need to start with that statement because somehow when you make such a awesome movie like Cinema Paradiso everybody thinks that all the following movies are going to be as good as Cinema Paradiso, and that's a stupid way of thinking. In fact, if you review all the movies directed by Giuseppe Tornatore you will notice that Cinema Paradiso is his highest rated movie, the rest are just OK movies.

La Corrispondenza is a good movie, just not as good as Cinema Paradiso, and that is OK because they are different pieces of art, just like The Pieta and the David. So, do yourself a favor and don't watch this movie if you expect another Cinema Paradiso.

That being said, I will answer the question in every male's mind: yes, Olga show her tits and that beautiful butt of her's, but focus for a minute, there is more in this movie that female nudity. This is an OK movie, and yes, I did wrote OK and not good. There were material for a good movie but somehow it stays short in almost everything, not reaching it's full potential.

The story is about an PhD student and a professor, they have been lovers for the last six years which is a problem because Amy is way younger than Ed.

The photography for this movie is really beautiful, York, Edinburgh, and Piemonte impregnates the movie with a melancholic atmosphere, perfect for the setting. Maybe Edinburgh was the weakest location, but it may be just me, and even so it has it's own sparks. While York show us lots of green and earth, and Piemonte lots of blue and water, Edinburgh shine by the grey and the harsh. But there is more in here for the untrained eyes. There is texture, like the wood on the door on Piemonte or the one induced by the water on the lake, also in Piemonte; contrasts, like the water drops in the ground of a rainy city, the character of Ed and the severity of Ed's doctor; light and darkness and the not so subtle hints of hope and despair.

The editing was OK, I guess. It's a pretty much straightforward tale, so editing is not so important (as in Inception, for example).

Music is between OK and good. Certainly is not the brightest work of Ennio Morricone, but not because is not good, but because it melts so good with the general feeling of the movie that you barely notice the music. It fill the blank spaces with a sweet feeling of sadness, sorrow, loneliness, and lost that are so subtle that are not powerful enough to catch your mind, trapped most of the time by the performance of Olga or the voice and emotion of Irons.

The duration of the movie it's OK but, for me, the last 15 minutes were kinda boring. I really wish the movie to end because Tornatore extended the drama a bit too much.

The performances range from good to just OK now and then. Let's be clear about something: this is a movie about Olga and Irons, the rest of the cast is just there to fill blank spaces, so I will focus on Olga and Irons. Olga Kurylenko it's more than just a pair of tits and a nice butt, she can act. It was proved back on Hit-man, Max Payne, and Quantum of Solace. Unfortunately, I don't know why she has such bad luck with movies... Anyway, 85% of the movie she delivers a good performance, there is a scene where she is taking a shower and you can see the emptiness in her face, but then again, there is another scene where she is talking about her father and you wish Tornatore pushed her a bit more to get a good performance and not just an OK performance. Jeremy Irons take his acting in a different direction and just like Olga, you can't stop feeling there was something missing. They both feel authentic and plastic at the same time...

Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room: the plot. The plot is OK, it's not an original idea but for telling this story you don't need it. It's kinda cheesy, use some clichés here and there, but it's OK. Maybe my biggest problem is the ending, but then again, maybe it's just me (it has a better ending than Blue is the warmest color). The plot is about grief, pain, loss, forgiveness, growing up, healing, getting better, moving forward; but above all, La Corrispondenza is a movie about love, love for your family, for yourself, for your significant other, and it's also a movie about time and how short it is, how much we ignore it and take it for granted not really appreciating it and how much we want to turn it back once it's gone.

Now, this is cinema and cinema it's a form of art. Maybe you will not like this movie but if the movie makes you ask questions like: it was fair?, how much is enough?, what would you do in that situation?. If you ask yourself or to other person such questions, then the movie accomplish it's objective: touching your soul.

For me this movie is a 8/10, but maybe it's because I have love and lost so I can connect to Amy when she fells into the ground like she lost complete control of her legs. The rest of the world will give to La Corrispondenza a 7.5/10 or maybe even a 7/10.

The Last Letter

[lavatch · 1/10 · 31 July 2017]

Dear Amy,

This is Ed writing from the dead. (LOL)

You are now reading my final letter to you. I am not writing to you about the Higgs Boson or numerical orbit integration. Instead, I am writing about the horrible film that has been made from our correspondence. It turns out that the filmmakers got our story wrong.

The film titled "La Corrispondenza" (Correspondence) seeks to weave a sentimental story about an old man having an adulterous affair with a woman thirty years his younger. They carry on for six "beautiful" (ha ha) years. Then, when the old geezer dies, he leaves an endless stream of letters and videos to be delivered to you.

In watching this film, I kept saying out loud to the screen, "Oh, please! Not another letter!" I feel as if I have a case of crabs coming on...not from studying my favorite supernova, Crab Nebula, but from having to endure my own letters and videos!

I realize that I have been pretty nosy in interfering with your life. I pried into your personal background when your inept driving took the life of your father. I coerced you into giving up a successful career as a stunt woman in films (screen name: Kamikaze) to become a student of astrophysics. I prodded you into writing a thesis called "From Gas, Stars to Supernovas: A Dialogue With Dead Stars," instead of allowing you to select your own topic.

The filmmakers took an arty approach to our love affair. It was especially the "flawed" sculpture of you that I found unbearably pretentious. It never occurred to the filmmakers that all of the letters and videos were fake and that I'm still alive, having pulled off the hoax of the century.

Please meet me at "our" favorite spot on Borso Ventoso.

See you on the island!

Love,

Ed (Professor Edward Phoerum, as in "theorem")

Utter load of pretentious rubbish

[Boristhemoggy · 2/10 · 18 July 2016]

If you like Olga, watch it for her. Shauna McDonald is wasted with a trivial part. Jeremy Irons, he's such an anachronism and he's fine for period dramas and parts that need pretentious Englishmen in them. Outside of that his skills are limited and his attraction non existent. Typical male fantasy of young beautiful woman loving an old man, and Irons makes me want to vomit with his 'love voice' where he speaks eloquently about his love for the beauty that he sees only rarely. So, he's a cheat, to his wife and to his kids. He's also one of the most banal and boring orators I've ever known and his constant talking as he reads the texts and she views his videos is enough to drive me mad. He dead but from beyond the grave all he does it try to control her and not let her grieve. And the final monologue? Oh dear God in heaven, probably one of the very worst in cinematic history.

I absolutely wasted 2 hours of my life over this appalling film and although I was never a great fan of Irons, I'm put off him for life now. I'll never watch another film with him in again. Watch this if you love pretentious, boring movies that are as romantic as working overtime in an abattoir.

An underrated movie

[annaandreani · 9/10 · 4 September 2021]

To me It looks like the easier version of Insterstellar. I found it completely moving. From the start to the end. Obviously it depends on your conception of love hic et nunc , and experience. I will suspend judgement about verisimilitude , communication strategies , and the actors' performance (as I watched it dubbed in Italian) and I will say here love is the way (no matter which way) Tornatore reflects on the relation between the logical and illogical. Is it possible to speak about mistakes and blame when love takes over?

However, despite the plot there is something in the idea that moved me and motivated me.

I trust it is not underrated just because it's a "love story", which would be an unjustified categorization.

My advice...

[savixa · 5/10 · 5 February 2018]

Unless you meet both of the following criteria: sex: W age: +60

do not watch it!

The communication as the purest form of connection

[b1le · 8/10 · 12 May 2016]

What do you need in order to create a movie in the inverted order from the usual story line: the one that starts with the line "From death do us part" and ends with the line "They lived happily ever after"?

The answer is simple: You need a mastermind like Giuseppe Tornatore. A mind capable of inventing such interesting story, told through inspirational dialogues and intriguing plot.

The final product entitled "The Correspondence" is equally impressive as an independent piece of art, as well as a juxtaposing part of Tornatore's previous movie "The Best Offer". The beauty of comparing his recent films (written in English) lies in the opportunity to grasp the big picture. Both movies revolve around couples and involve prototypical males (rational yet highly emotional, thus men in touch with their feminine side) and prototypical females (fragile yet strong, thus women in touch with their masculine side). Both have impressive cast for the role of the men (Jeremy Irons / Geoffrey Rush) and expressive cast for the role of the women (Olga Kurylenko /Sylvia Hoeks). "The Best Offer" deals with the mysterious appearance of the female character, while "The Correspondence" seals the deal with the mysterious disappearance of the male character. The first speaks about losing oneself when finding the significant other, while the second movie speaks about finding oneself while losing the significant other.

Indeed, the theme of loss is ever-present in each frame and pixel of "The Correspondence". Someone might wonder if something so void and devoid of any words, something as ineffable as loss could ever be explained through words? It can and it ought to be, since the communication is the purest form of connection between a man and a woman, a marriage of their ideas, an ideal in itself, an open door to the deepest human connection. As long as we perceive the words spoken outside of our heads (in the books, songs or mouths of other people) as coded messages from the loved one, and as long we use all words existing inside of our heads as messages for our loved one, there will be connection. As such, the words are symbol of focus, of attention, and constant (re)invention of the significant other. Their presence signifies life, their absence – death (even in a symbolic manner) of the other.

Within this movie, the characters use words to reach to one another, somewhere, anywhere. With this movie the director uses words, to hopefully reach toward each one of us, everywhere. With this review, I use words, maybe also to reach to someone, somewhere, out there…

Biljana Gjoneska www.evermind.me

Old professor and hot young student younger than his daughter

[wisewebwoman · 1/10 · 15 January 2018]

How many times have I seen this done before. Every old man's fantasy. Except this time he dies. And then tries to control her from beyond the grave.

The guy (played by Jeremy Irons dishabille, worn, ancient and boring) has been cheating on his wife for 6 years. He also manages to escape to his villa in Italy every year to spend acres of time with his young paramour.

The stock characters of boatman and Italian charlady are right out of central casting. Every secondary character in this movie works to keep his letters, emails, gifts and texts coming after he's dead.

That's basically the whole thrust of the film.

Also main character played by Olga Kurylenko is a complete narcissist. She abandons her mother, has her cellphone ringing in the theatre, at lectures, in solemn libraries, everywhere. She stalks his family who all come around to her way of looking at things (where's the betrayed wife?) i.e love of his life, even his youngest gets introduced to her.

Seriously, skip this, suspending disbelief gets exhausting after a while.

Sad story unnecessarily dragged out

[corrientes123 · 1/10 · 8 January 2018]

Maybe this is a movie for necrophilic melancholics, but there is next to no joy in it. If you like drama and tragedy it may be for you. Otherwise you shouldn't waste your time. I didn't even understand the idea of the protagonist to drag out the mourning of his love. Sad!

Academic Scientific Love

[amirreza_asadi · 9/10 · 23 November 2019]

I love the creativity of this drama, we have creative fantasies, but why not use this kind of creativity in the drama? The story is about the love between a young student and a genius astronomer. And a crazy genius thinks he knows how to deal with death

Dialog writing and Composition of scenes are lovely, but some nude scenes are unnecessary, I know Olga Kurylenko is so pretty, attractive and proportional, but I see no reason for some nude scenes, for example, the scene in the bathroom, I think this is an act of sexual objectification of women. finally, I should say that its one of best romance movies, which I ever have seen, Although it doesn't have something big as Titanic ship, it shakes your feeling hard as 7 Richter magnitude earthquake

Cell Phone Opera Miss - The Correspondence

[arthur_tafero · 5/10 · 7 March 2024]

I love Tornatore, but not for films like this one. It is missing the bittersweet humor of his other films, and the musical score by Morricone is not very memorable. That is already a bad combination. This is the 11th film of Tornatore that I am reviewing in succession, and it ranks in 11th place; that should give you a clue.

If you liked "You've Got Mail" with Tom Hanks, you will not like this film because it has none of the humor of the Hanks film. It is a series of tedius, and eventually, boring exchanges between Ededededededed and the female leading character's name I have already forgotten.

Her occupation was interesting; she was a stuntwoman, and the only interesting parts of the film are her stunts, but they are not enough to hold up this miss. Don't bother with this one; watch ANY of his first ten films; they are ALL better.

Another hit from the original film director, Giuseppe Tornatore

[evacarol2812 · 8/10 · 30 April 2021]

A complex, intellectual, deeply emotional love story between an university professor and his student. The story continues after one's death and the exchanges between them are full of romantism, coming from another world. Very touching movie, left me in tears with the end unraveling on the music of Ennio Morricone, the great Italian composer. What's left in life when you lose a loved one? A rainy dark path until you start to live again. Or not... I love Tornatore's style so much, he's one of my favorite film directors, definitely in top 3.

Meh...

[tomasdavisd · 5/10 · 6 April 2020]

The acting was not at all convincing, it was instead the plot that moved me. I managed to make myself ignore the interpretation and focus on the story.

Somehow a sweet, complex argument: to extend one's time beyond death. It worked -to me- for the sake of the love story, but completely detached from all the infinity-universe-galaxy-stars discourse. The starry night in the end, or that falcon flying along the train were I think cruel distractions.

So 5/10, for the tears I shed and the beautiful frames of Orta and San Giulio island.

Nice but not new

[erika_narduzzi · 8/10 · 24 January 2016]

I loved it, but the idea was the same of PS I Love You. Not exactly, but in general! I don't really like her, but I adore Jeremy Irons... I was about to cry, if only a woman sit next to me didn't start to blow her nose with an handkerchief and made me laugh! Probably for the final speech he speaks a little bit too much...too long monologue... After the movie a friend of mine said he acts unfairly and this is something we discuss so long...and it's another reason to see this movie, cause is always interesting when you can talk serious and important questions just seeing a story at the cinema! Then...I was to Como lake this Summer and I recognize the location! So cool!