I am Love

Sometimes a little bit of stalking can be quite helpful: After Italian director Luca Guadagnino had bombarded actress Tilda Swinton with letters and finally approached her in a hotel lobby in 1994 the two of them became fast friends. Fifteen years later out that friendship gave birth two the movie I AM LOVE, which Swinton co-produced and starred in. It came out to be a gorgeous film, which is slowly sneaking up on the viewer. Director of photography Yorick Le Saux creates finely tuned images of the rich industrial dynasty with some elegant lighting. The film lures its viewers into the stiff and statuesque world of the patriarch’s immigrant wife – just to then show us some very fine cracks in the façade. A friend of her son’s, a talented cook from the province, seems to draw just a little too much attention from this rigid woman. The result is a massive emotional breach, sweeping everything away with it; the rebirth of a sensuous woman; and, from the first nuances to the triumphantly rushed finale, another masterpiece performance by Tilda Swinton.