Ora che Marlene

At the end, we are told there are 1503 snapshots used in this rather dry monologue about Io. She has been abandoned by the love of her life "Marlene" (Elena Ravesi) and her mother (Cinzia Balsamo) - who scolded her so very often as a child, has died. Director Giovanna Silvestri now proceeds to provide us with a narration in a rather depressingly monotonic voice and we discover that despite seeing other women, nothing can compare to the now absent "Marlene". There's some quite clever time-lapse photography here which quite effectively illustrates the mundanity and emptiness of her new life; the tap dripping and the half full (or, more likely, empty) wine glass on the table - they all symbolise the loneliness of this woman. There's no effort made to explain just why she is in this predicament, however, so it's very hard to know whether to empathise or sympathise or both. Perhaps she merits our pity or perhaps she's just a nightmare to live with? Who knows?