‘C’è ancora domani‘ (2023 – English title is ‘There Is Still Tomorrow‘) is a directorial debut but it does not look at all like one. It can be said that it is also an author’s film, because the director is also the co-author of the script and also undertakes the main role. Paola Cortellesi is in Italy a household name, actress and singer, nominated and winner of numerous awards, especially as a singer. With this film, feminist plea and homage to post-war Italian neorealism, Paola Cortellesi has a good chance to add some new awards in other categories. The film is already the biggest box-office success of Italian cinema since the pandemic.
Delia and Ivano are a poor couple in Rome in the years after World War II. Italy is occupied by American troops. Hope can be felt in the air after the defeat of fascism. The first democratic elections are approaching, but the economic conditions are very difficult. Ivano works, but the couple needs to take care of a sick father and three children, of which Marcella, the eldest daughter, is approaching the age of marriage. Marcella (at the cost of dropping out of school) and Delia are forced to work to supplement their income. They are not a happy family. Delia’s efforts are not appreciated by Ivano, a violent and vulgar man who becomes even more dangerous when he gets drunk. When Marcella is about to get engaged to the son of a rich cake shop owner, things seem to be looking up, but is this boy the right choice? Isn’t Marcella also at risk of being chained into a marriage dominated by a controlling man? Delia dreams of running away, perhaps with Nino, the unfulfilled love of her youth. The meeting with an American soldier who, despite the language barrier, understands her and agrees to help her at a critical moment, as well as the advice and complicity of a friend seem to hasten the moment of liberation. But fate also has something to say.
The opening scene already tells us that we are dealing with a special film. Paola Cortellesi shoots in black and white, which is obviously a hommage to American neorealist cinema. The streetscape, the interior of the houses, the clothing of the characters are accurately reconstructed. And yet, from time to time, the rhythm of the story is broken by directorial interventions that want to be as visible as possible: slow-motion footage; dance or mime scenes in which the feelings of the characters and the relationships between them are expressed through the expressions of human bodies and not through dialogues; finally the soundtrack in which are interspersed songs completely out of sync with the era, from light Italian music to new contemporary hip hop. This last trick is the most debatable: it certainly makes the film more interesting, but it seems to put directorial concept in the foreground. Such a decision is dangerous in a melodrama, be it a social one, because it risks killing the emotion. The actors fulfill their missions precisely, starting with Paola Cortellesi in the lead role, continuing with Valerio Mastandrea in the unsavory role of Ivano and Romana Maggiora Vergano who is beautiful and expressive in the role of Marcella. The ending places the whole story in a larger context, which of course will please all feminists – women and men, myself included. This meeting between neorealism and hip hop results in one of the most interesting European films of 2023, a film that we may meet again in the awards season of 2024.