The basic elements of The Consequences Of Love recall Lost In Translation; Titta, an intensely serious businessman, resides in a Swiss hotel and begins a tentative friendship with a younger woman. Here the similarities with Sofia Coppola's film end however, as it soon becomes apparent that Titta has a terrible secret. He takes heroin weekly, he owns a gun and he regularly receives suitcases full of money which he deposits into a bank account. Then one day two gangsters visit Titta, and the films swirls into a mood of impending dread.
When Sorrentino's film premiered at Cannes, eager critics drew comparisons with Visconti and Antonioni. It's certainly an exceptional film, yet Sorrentino's idiosyncratic style owes few debts to other directors; his commanding use of sound, for example, daringly pairing a static shot of Titta with pounding techno music, or amplifying a quiet sound such as a dragging suitcase to increase unease.
Toni Servillo is remarkable as the anti-heroic Titta; it's a difficult feat to make an almost permanently deadpan character constantly fascinating, yet Servillo succeeds in making the protagonist one of the most intriguing cinematic figures of the year. He rarely alters his expression or his glum enunciation, be he chatting to his daughter on the phone or berating a bank manager, yet occasional flickers of emotion such as the half-smile he gives the barmaid, betray his humanity. There are many reasons to watch and admire The Consequences Of Love, but the highlight must be Servillo's performance in the last five minutes of the film; wistful and reflective, yet voiced with his typically solemn, slow diction, his end monologue is incredibly affecting.
A gripping psychological thriller that probes the dark secret harboured by middle-aged Italian loner Titta Di Girolamo, who has lived for eight years in an anonymous Swiss hotel. Elegantly dressed, he spends his days impassively in the lobby or the bar, but his icy demeanour cracks when he begins to talk to the attractive barmaid Sofia, and the terrible truth about his concealed world begins to unravel.
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The Consequences of Love
