There are not many films that provoke such a deep emotion that disturbs our hearts in such a way, that it makes us feel, throughout almost the entire film, in an uproar of sensations that are difficult to tame, like THE MACALUSO SISTERS (Emma Dante , 2020). Of course, when the film ends, it stays with us, demands our attention, haunts our thoughts and makes us reflect. So, as I write these simple lines, it's hard not to be moved again. It is, therefore, an emotionally intense and demanding story and the way in which it is presented to us reveals delicacy in the details and an artistic care typical of a superior work.
The film is directed by Emma Dante, from her own theatrical staging. As the title indicates, the story follows the five Macaluso sisters through childhood, adulthood and old age. So far, nothing new. However, the tragedy that will overshadow them gives the film a very powerful human dimension, in a mixture of guilt, remorse and penitence.
Broken dreams, wasted lives, trapped in that house that seems to prevent them from moving forward and trying to do something that makes them happy. A house where the closest there is to paradise is a painting on the wall and a painting on the sideboard in the living room. The dinner service is also kept here for special occasions. This habit has always bothered me, apparently as Italian as Portuguese (or maybe it's not restricted to any nationality, maybe it's simply human), of keeping the best crockery, the best cutlery, the best towels, while we watch life passing by. And this will be one of the main messages of the film, to enjoy everything, not keep anything, not wait for what we don't know is going to happen.
When we see Maria, the eldest of the sisters, on her way home from work, performing the same dance steps as when she was young, with the difference that, as a young girl, she allowed herself to dream, we realize that her life was not, in fact, lived, the same dance becomes a cry of despair, of liberation. And, therefore, faced with the news of her announced death, she voraciously eats some cakes, as if that gesture represented everything she had not lived, in a kind of revenge.
In the end, we witness the dismantling of the sisters' house, after the death of the only one who never left it. Furniture and coffin descend through the same window, the moving van on one side, the hearse on the other, everything is disposable, including the human being.
The film is directed by Emma Dante, from her own theatrical staging. As the title indicates, the story follows the five Macaluso sisters through childhood, adulthood and old age. So far, nothing new. However, the tragedy that will overshadow them gives the film a very powerful human dimension, in a mixture of guilt, remorse and penitence.
Broken dreams, wasted lives, trapped in that house that seems to prevent them from moving forward and trying to do something that makes them happy. A house where the closest there is to paradise is a painting on the wall and a painting on the sideboard in the living room. The dinner service is also kept here for special occasions. This habit has always bothered me, apparently as Italian as Portuguese (or maybe it's not restricted to any nationality, maybe it's simply human), of keeping the best crockery, the best cutlery, the best towels, while we watch life passing by. And this will be one of the main messages of the film, to enjoy everything, not keep anything, not wait for what we don't know is going to happen.
When we see Maria, the eldest of the sisters, on her way home from work, performing the same dance steps as when she was young, with the difference that, as a young girl, she allowed herself to dream, we realize that her life was not, in fact, lived, the same dance becomes a cry of despair, of liberation. And, therefore, faced with the news of her announced death, she voraciously eats some cakes, as if that gesture represented everything she had not lived, in a kind of revenge.
In the end, we witness the dismantling of the sisters' house, after the death of the only one who never left it. Furniture and coffin descend through the same window, the moving van on one side, the hearse on the other, everything is disposable, including the human being.