Respiro

''Respiro'' is a 2002 Italian-French film written and directed by Emanuele Crialese and released in English-language markets in 2003. The film stars Valeria Golino, Vincenzo Amato, and Francesco Casisa. In the Italian language, ''respiro'' means ''breath''.

Plot

Grazia, played by Golino, is a free-spirited mother of three married to shy fisherman Pietro (Vincenzo Amato) and living on the idyllic but isolated island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea. She shows signs of manic depressive behaviour—one moment she is laughing wildly and swimming half-naked in the sea, while the next she is curled in a ball on her bed. Out of her earshot, the adult members of her extended family vaguely discuss sending her to a facility of some sort in Northern Italy.

Grazia is closely shepherded by her oldest son Pasquale, played by Casisa. After Pietro puts down one of Grazia's dogs because he thinks it might be dangerous, impulsive Grazia sets all the stray dogs free in the town's makeshift kennel. After the dogs swarm over the island, the locals demand that Pietro do something about his wife. But when he tells her he plans to send her away to Northern Italy, she runs away and hides in a cave on the shore, where she is secretly tended by Pasquale, who brings her food every day.

Pietro and some friends doggedly search the island for Grazia, so Pasquale leaves one of her dresses by the edge of the sea as a ruse. Pietro finds the dress—the one she was wearing the day she disappeared—and nearly everyone presumes she has drowned. Pietro, however, continues to search for her, and just before an important local religious festival, he sees her swimming in the water. He dives in to assist her, thinking a miracle has occurred, and many of the villagers follow suit, thus providing a sheltering circle around her as she is brought safely to shore.

Awards and nominations

Writer/director Crialese won the Critics Week Grand Prize and the Young Critics Award at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the Best European Union Film at the César Awards and received other nominations and awards in various European award competitions.

Soundtrack

Artist John Surman wrote the original score featuring sequenced synthesizer and alto saxophone. There was no soundtrack CD released, however part of the score can be found on his 1981 album ''The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon''. The track is called "Part 1 - Nestor's Saga (The Tale of The Ancient)". The soundtrack also featured "La Bambola" performed by the Italian artist Patty Pravo.

Critical reception

The English-language reviews for ''Respiro'' were generally positive. Steven Holden wrote in ''The New York Times'' that "not since ''Y Tu Mamá También'' has a movie so palpably captured the down-to-earth, flesh-and-blood reality of high-spirited people living their lives without self-consciousness." Writing for ''Premiere'' magazine, critic Peter Debruge noted, "in the annals of Mediterranean island love stories, Respiro reflects the effortless charm of a film like ''Il Postino''."

Critic Desson Thomson of ''The Washington Post'', however, felt "its long-winded denouement, in which Grazia runs away rather than be sent to an institution, doesn't bring the story full circle. It just extends it."

External links

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*{{rotten-tomatoes, respiro
Magazine article about the making of ''Respiro''

2002 films
Italian independent films
French independent films
Films set in Sicily
2000s Italian-language films
2000s French films
Sicilian-language films
Films set in the Mediterranean Sea
Sony Pictures Classics films
Fandango (Italian company) films