Luigi Comencini’s gritty melodrama, Crime of Love (Delitto D’amore) is currently available on DVD thanks to Raro Video. I had the opportunity to view the remastered 1974 film, along with the special features of an interview with Adriano Apra, a famous Italian film critic. The movie stars Giuliano Gemma and Stefania Sandrelli in a “worker’s fairytale,” riddled with the prejudices of northern and southern Italy, family pride, and social commentary on the deadly conditions that factory workers encountered.
If you can get passed the very weak protagonists, Nullo (Gemma) and Carmela (Sandrelli), there’s probably a barely glimmering gem of Italian cinema here. In doing some research, I found that Comencini was nominated for the coveted Palme d’Or award for his work on Crime of Love at that year’s Cannes Film Festival. However, Francis Ford Coppola won for The Conversation.
In the movie, the traditional sense of romance that we’re so accustomed to because of present day epics like Titanic or The Notebook is stripped away in a very raw, unapologetic manner. The socio-political climate facing these factory laborers from opposite ends of the country immediately recalls a Romeo & Juliet feel since their families are vehemently against their relationship.
There are a few minutes in the beginning of the movie where it’s exciting to see Carmela flirt with Nullo, declaring her love for him when they’ve just officially met, but it falls short in that Carmela is immature and Nullo is tied around her finger. What’s most frustrating is their boring banter back and forth because they are bored themselves, satisfied with settling as factory workers. Carmela philosophizes about all the reasons why they shouldn’t be together when it seems that they are at their closest moment of finding a happily-ever-after, yet she was the one who pursued Nullo in the first place. He stands his ground without any hesitation that they should be in love, which seems like a good enough contrast to her character, but Gemma‘s delivery of Nullo‘s circumstance is feeble.
Many scenes are set against the cold backdrop of Carmela’s poor stone, graffiti-faced home which she shares with her family, showing just the poverty-stricken life from which she is really desperate to emerge. Also, in just reading the DVD case, I was disappointed by the immediate spoiler of how the smoky conditions of her factory job ultimately destroy her health, heightening her relationship with Nullo, in the face of adversity.
The only saving grace from this DVD is the special interview with Apra who sheds light on Comencini’s penchant for melodrama and how the director’s career and vision came to fruition for this film. Maybe the point of the movie is to set aside imagination and the thrill of telling a story, when a viewer should uncomfortably embrace the harsh reality that has occurred in the state of these characters.
I’m not proficient in the history of Italian cinema- Life is Beautiful and Facing Windows are about as much as I know, and those are excellent films! While Crime of Love quenched my interest in the Italian language, this isn’t that impressive. Watch it if you’d like to dissect it yourself. Perhaps there are better Comencini films wroth recommending in the future.
Rating: Flashes of potential in the politics of the sexes, the labor force, and family rivalries, but don’t look for an optimistic ending that will leave you inspired with this fil (3/10)
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