Vivere

Vivere was a pleasant surprise. Based on the summary and critic reviews, I thought Vivere had mixed review written all over it. But no! This is a positive (if somewhat lukewarm) review! I thought Vivere was successful. It made me feel one, maybe even two entire emotions.

Vivere has three lead characters. The first two are sisters, Francesca and the teenage Antionette. Antionette runs away on Christmas Eve. Francesca’s father bids her to go find her sister. During Francesca’s journey to Rotterdam to find Antoinette, she encounters a woman who has been in a car accident. The woman, Gerlinde joins Francesca on her journey. Francesca doesn’t find her sister but she does desperately kiss Gerlinde and have sex with a bartender.

After Francesca’s point of view opens the film, it switches to Gerlinde’s point of view. We learn she has recently retired and has an absent female partner. In Gerlinde’s point of view, we see her randomly encounter Antionette and bond with her. The film then switches point of view again to Antoinette. Antoinette has a boyfriend in a band named Snickers. She is also pregnant. It turns out, Snickers was the one who side-swiped Gerlinde’s car. So, it makes sense that Antoinette was so happy to see Gerlinde, a near stranger when she encounters her. Once we’ve seen the set up from all three points of view, the film winds down with reconciliation between the sisters assisted by Gerlinde.

I liked the use of different perspectives in Vivere. It’s not full Rashomon where the stories heavily vary. Instead, the different points of view fill in motivation and backstory. Though some details do change. Gerlinde and Francesca’s perspective on the desperate make-out they shared varies the most. The film also manages to be consistent in its quality of characterization. This is especially impressive with Antoinette. Teenagers can be difficult to write sympathetically. And realistically, Antoinette is the reason for all the conflict in this film. Her point of view offers her a level of sympathy and character depth which really helps.

The film’s themes of connection on a cold, unfeeling world comes across loud and clear. Gerlinde, Antoinette and Francesca’s positive interactions with one another have emotional weight to them. What’s the reverse of sterile? That’s how Vivere felt. Even good movies sometimes have an emotional distance to them. Vivere doesn’t. The film and its characters feel real and emotionally rich.

There’s frankly not enough happening in it to ever be one of my favourites, but Vivere was a pleasant little surprise. It was successful in its artistic endeavours. It managed to craft a simple story of three women who felt like people more than characters. Vivere managed to create emotional gravitas in all possible combinations of character interactions. This is most impressive with Gerlinde, who has only known the other two for a matter of hours. Overall, Vivere is a quiet little success of a movie. It has strong themes of family and basic human connection. The simple humanity of the film made me like it much more than I anticipated.

Overall rating: 7/10

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