Cinema Azzurro Scipioni

Gerald A. DeLuca on April 23, 2004 at 5:32 am

One of the films that has been often shown by Silvano Agosti at his theatre is, understandably, his own 1984 D'AMORE SI VIVE (“One Lives by Love”), started as a film series made for television (and running about nine hours) and later edited into a shorter feature length movie. Shot in the city of Parma, the movie examines in slow precise details the workings of love, especially among society’s rejected, physically and mentally challenged, socially excluded and otherwise loveless. It does this with a spirit of affection and not pity.

One has the sense in watching this film that one is peering surreptitiously into the privateness of others, their near-masturbatory ecstasies and very private joys. But instead of shock, the feeling is one of overall tenderness for love in all its varieties. Who does not deserve love? The almost voyeuristic nature of the movie aroused antipathy in some quarters.

It is worth a trip to the Azzurro Scipioni to see this film if it is ever being re-programmed, as it is from time to time. I saw it in a video projection of its shorter feature-length version at this cinema. I do not believe the movie has ever been shown in the United States.