THE FILM

THE CRITICS
"Maria Sole Tognazzi’s second feature... has the merit of offering a rarely seen woman’s take on a man’s experience of love... Lush soundtrack by Sicilian pop singer and composer Carmen Consoli... Roberto – played sensitively by Favino – as he passes from contentment through jealousy to the pain of loss with Sara, and then, with Alba, from unease through confusion... Cinematographer Arnaldo Catinari captures Turin’s mixture of architectural elegance and forbidding urban blankness... Consoli’s torchy, slow-build strings, guitar, and sax soundtrack is never short on atmosphere."  SCREEN


"... lush widescreen lensing and Carmen Consoli’s subtle score... " VARIETY


"Pier Francesco Favino shines... a nuanced performance ... It is not often that a break-up and breakdown are seen from a man’s perspective. Usually only women are allowed that kind of sensitivity in movies... One of Italy’s finer actors, Favino so effortlessly carries the film..." 
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER



DIRECTOR’S NOTE
What does a man feel when a woman leaves him?
Or, what does he feel when he realizes that he doesn’t love her anymore, and decides to put an end to their love story?
How many times in our lives have we played the role of victim or that of executor in a romantic relationship, and how much of the memory of loves that are over, do we carry with us into the new love stories that await us?
L’UOMO CHE AMA (THE MAN WHO LOVES) is an unsentimental film that speaks in a direct, clear, and even shameless way about feelings of love, above all, but also feelings of abandonment and the fear of losing all.
The film is about a love, Roberto’s love, that is absolute. The kind of love that can cut you down, or totally fill your life. The kind of love that can make you vomit as soon as you get up in the morning, or can make you feel like you are the only man on earth. The love that can mean fulfillment, or the grief of abandonment. The love that songs sing about, books write about, the love that the philosopher Barthes called ’obscene’, and for which nothing on earth is more important, no catastrophes greater than a call that does not come from the person loved. Everyone close to Roberto is struggling with the theme of love: his two women, his brother, his parents, the female doctor who owns the pharmacy where he works. All, in some way, are transformed or realized by it. MARIA SOLE TOGNAZZI

               FESTIVALS &  AWARDS

***** ROME INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL *****
                           IN COMPETITION
          
                ***** LOS ANGELES ITALIA *****
                              ITALIAN FILM FEST
          
***** SWITZERLAND PINK APPLE FILM FESTIVAL *****
                               SPECIAL EVENT

                           ***** OPEN ROADS *****  
                                NEW ITALIAN CINEMA
                       LINCOLN CENTER NEW YORK 
                                OFFICIAL SELECTION

***** AUSTRALIA PALACE ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL *****

           ***** BULGARIA CINEMANIA FEST *****
                                 OFFICIAL SELECTION

                                           Nomination
                ***** DAVID DI DONATELLO 2009 ***** 

                                           Nomination
                   ***** NASTRO D’ARGENTO 2009 *****