The Italian cinema seems to have modes: gritty neorealism on the one hand and grand opera on the other. Luca Guadagnino’s I AM LOVE belongs to the tradition of grand opera, cinematic opera, and o boy does it trumpet that tradition with virtuoso camerawork that jettisons from character to emotion to detail to a sweep of the land and its buildings and inhabitants with a John Adams score throbbing through the light and rattling bones.

Sure, the script may be nothing to write home about if you really sit and think about it but it’s a melodrama and it rests on its age old archetypes thus allowing the subtle and powerful work from the Tild and the rest of the cast and their great director to ensnare memory and then it’s more and more about how the music and images sing! The film is like flipping through an Italian fashion magazine while blasting minimalist classical in the best possible way. Without trying to sound entirely corny I felt physically drunk with euphoria after seeing this movie. Guadagnino has made an experience in cinematic opera.