BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“Keep the map so the space and time do not come in the way.” – line from Nuovo Olimpo
This is a brilliant and breathtakingly perfect example of the idiomatic expression of two ships passing in the night. It is also a no-holds barred story of lust and love that could have only happened in the 70s between two men. While the story is simple, the colloquy is arduous and sad, and its ending is bittersweet.
Transport back to the 70s when Italy was in turmoil and the gay culture was beginning to come out from behind the rocks and certainly the closet. A college student named Pietro (Andrea Di Luigi) immediately upon seeing a budding film assistant named Enea (Damiano Gavino) making a movie is possessed by his beauty. He finds out that he hangs out at a local move theater named Nuovo Olimpo (New Olympus), a movie theater frequented by gay men. With a chance encounter, they meet in a bathroom, but Pietro does not want to do ‘it’ with him there. He is passionately into him and wants to be private with his intimacy. So, they plan to meet at Enea’s ex-lover’s grandmother’s house. He remains friends with her. It is a stunningly beautiful house and there they have a night of intense lust and love that is both magical and beyond memorable. In a sense, they fall deeply, fervently, and passionately in love.
Arrangements are made for them to meet again for a pleasant night, just the two of them. Unfortunately, fate, as the saying goes, was not kind and intervened. Italy is in turmoil and civil unrest prevents them from ever having that fantasy date, even though Pietro did try to reach out to Enea. The theater was ramshackled and the connection via a letter to him that the cashier had hidden away for Enea remained closeted in her possession. Only to be revealed to him years later in a chance and rather somber encounter.
Time has a way of stealing away from us. Enea never marries but ends up in a relationship with another man and becomes open about his homosexuality. He also becomes a well-known director. Meanwhile, Pietro, who was studying to become a doctor, becomes a very successful one, and ironically marries a woman. But both are aware and sense that the marriage is a sham, and his attention is deeply buried in another world she cannot figure out until one day it becomes obvious.
Flash forward over 30 plus years, in a production accident, Enea now needs a surgeon and either by chance or fate, Pietro is called upon to save his sight. Not realizing initially who his surgeon is but suspecting, Petro is well aware of who Enea is. When he finally ‘sees’ him for the first time, Enea knows who he is. To add to the dimension of connection to one another, the house that Enea now lives in is the same house where they first made love in and whiled away the lustful hours in bliss.
Although both have moved on, they still hunger in the past. Pietro’s wife now knows what wall has been separating them all these years. Enea’s boyfriend is too in love with him and, although knowing of his checkered and amorous past, accepts his foibles.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this movie? A big shout-out must go to the two main leads here. Andrea Di Luigi as Pietro and Damiano Gavino as Enea were willing to show us themselves in full frontal nudity that was done in the context of the scene and God knows is not offense. It is what two young men in the aftermath of wild sex would normally do. They were not afraid nor ashamed to show us the naturalness of two men talking and enjoying each other’s company after a night of passion. Their passionate scenes were quite hot and erotic and again all done in the context of what two young men in their 20s would be doing when just initially exploring their sexuality with each other for the first time. Their acting skills were to some degree a bit underplayed through the years. Andrea was a bit more pensive and reflective and showed a lot more regret in what never took place. Damiano played it so close to his chest that we really did not get to see much of Enea change over the years and perhaps that was the point. Maybe he just withdrew more into himself. The artistry in gradually making them older was also a real work of skill and creativity. Kudos to the make-up department for making it look so real and not in the least bit fake.
In a sense this is not a likeable movie or satisfying but I think that is its point. It leaves you empty as much of what their lives appeared to be. While their lives were content perhaps, they were for the most part inane and hollow. Something was always missing. Seemingly unfulfilled. Especially when you have no opportunity to mutually conclude a passion in each other that is so intense that it is not forgotten, no matter how hard you try or no matter what actions you take to replace or substitute for it. It never will equal it. So, it becomes a sad chapter in your life that frankly you can never move on from and to a degree is likely worse than a death. For with a death, there is finality; this was a never-ending story, your world becomes a constant struggle to stay in the real world and not go into the world of ‘what ifs.’ Unfortunately, these two guys have remained in that spiraling world of melancholy and all they can do in the end is ask each other to occasionally “think of me once in a while”. Ironically, that is a given. They have never forgotten each other.
The end scene is unusually poignant as it shows the two of them having pizza and wine, obviously in their make-believe world. I am so sure that each of them has pondered what their lives would have been like if they had met those 30 plus years ago in that same restaurant. It is a dream that each has had, I am sure, many, many times over in their lives.
This is a brilliant albeit disheartened movie, perhaps understood better and on a deeper level by gay individuals who may have gone through similar experiences.
I understood completely.
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