Daniele Luchetti afterwards The school And Laces still adapts a novel by Domenico Starnone for cinema: it’s about Confidence (in cinemas from April 24) with Elio Germano, Vittoria Puccini and Federica Rosellini. Like the previous films, this one also has its roots in the human being, and specifically, in Pietro’s clouded mindan impeccable teacher, loved by his students and by the best, Teresa, with whom he forms a relationship after high school.
An intense relationship is born. One day, however, the two confess a secret to each other. From that moment their relationship ends. Teresa leaves to continue her career at Boston University, while Pietro will marry his colleague Nadia (Vittoria Puccini), with whom he has his daughter Emma. The teacher writes books and holds conferences around Italy on the pedagogy of affection. The two will meet on a few occasions and after many years, when Pietro receives an award from the President of the Republic. In all those years the man remains obsessed with Teresa and the nightmare that that very intimate secret could be revealed. But is that obsession the result of reality or of his mind subjugated by fear?
Elio Germano and Federica Rosellini (Courtesy press office)
Confidence is a psycho-thriller that investigates the love of a couple and a man’s fear of being exposed by society and family. «The film has two very clear souls which then progressively move towards ambiguous and gray areas, where reality and fiction merge and try to describe Pietro’s mental state» says the director.
«Pietro is a rigorous teacher who separates their emotions from work. The relationship with Teresa will be explosive because she is a woman not under the thumb of the man and the teacheris autonomous despite being younger”, explains Elio Germano, “this relationship shatters Pietro’s social role, his supremacy as a male. At that point he begins to fear himselfof losing control in front of a woman free from social cages and superstructures.”
Elio Germano. (Courtesy press office)
An imaginative delirium begins that takes Pietro inside his head: but what is real and what is not? «Pietro self-sabotages his emotionswhile Teresa prefers to live them without shame even at the cost of not having friends around”, continues Germano.
«I fell in love with Teresaa woman of supreme intelligence who looks beyond the ripple of appearances”, says the interpreter who made her film debut with Where the shadows fall by Valentina Pedicini, «I like its wild and decomposed nature, and its relationship with anti-bourgeois truth.” Teresa undermines Pietro’s certainties, it is a kind of superego that confronts him with himself, unmasks him, but instead of taking off his mask he hides inside his fears.
Tags: Confidence Elio Germano psychothriller fear experiencing emotions
