Il cuore altrove (2003)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Pupi Avati

Writer:

Pupi Avati (writer)

Release Date:

24 January 2003 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Comedy

Plot:

Nello Balocchi, a 35-year-old teacher of Greek and Latin, is invited to Bologna by his father, the owner of the Papal tailor's shop in Rome...

Plot Keywords:

Teacher | Blind Woman | Restored Eyesight | Male Female Relationship | Eyesight

Awards:

3 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Neri Marcorè	...	Nello
Vanessa Incontrada	...	Angela
Giancarlo Giannini	...	Cesare
Nino D'Angelo	...	Domenico
Sandra Milo	...	Arabella
Giulio Bosetti	...	Dott. Gardini
Edoardo Romano	...	Prof. Gibertoni
Anna Longhi	...	Lina
Chiara Sani	...	Jole
Alfiero Toppetti	...	Renato
Rita Carlini
Bob Messini
Pietro Ragusa	...	Guido Beccalis
Adriano Amidei Migliano
Romano Malaspina

Also Known As:

Incantato (USA)
The Heart Is Elsewhere (International: English title)
The Heart Is Everywhere (International: English title)

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | USA:Unrated | Brazil:12 | Singapore:PG

Company:

Duea Film

Goofs:

Continuity: Nello walks into Angela's room and says, "Good morning". They only talk for a few minutes. She then asks him if it is dark outside, to which he replies: "It's almost evening".

Movie Connections:

References City Lights (1931)

A Pretty Take on a Sad Sack Fool for Love

"Incantato (Il Cuore altrove)" is a beautiful looking film with an odd set-up and story line.

It's set in the Northern Italy of pre-World War II as that's about the last point one could have such naive characters, particularly the central man, a 35-year-old virgin classics teacher whose idea of love is what he's learned from the Latin poets.

He is a misfit everywhere - from his earthy family of Papal tailors, from beloved choruses because he sings too loudly, from his boarding housemates and their assignations, from the school administration about curriculum, and especially from women. He is under orders from his father, Giancarlo Giannini (in a virtual cameo whose comically vulgar language is not fully translated in the English subtitles), to get laid and get married, not with the same woman, so that he can follow dad's lifestyle in business, marriage and affairs.

He becomes infatuated with first one then another inappropriate woman, for opposite reasons. While he is sweet, and he wins over his students and all who he comes in contact with and his improbable courtships are charming to a point, but as we feel more and more sorry for him as we hope he won't but are sure he will end up in heart break, the movie just gets too unreservedly bittersweet.

The ending is simply a head-scratcher. The movie titles certainly don't help -- the original Italian title translates as "The Found Heart," while the U.S. title translates as "Enchanted" and neither is helpful to interpretation. (One member of the audience came to the movie not realizing it would be the same film she had already seen under the former title.)

The subtitles are not only annoyingly white on white, but put up both parts of a conversation at the same time.