There's still tomorrow: My first foray into Italian cinema

I saw There's still tomorrow at the 2024 Brisbane Italian Film Festival. This was a new experience for me as I'd never seen an Italian film before. I liked the idea of the post-war 1940s setting and what I thought was going to be a feminist perspective on breaking away from traditional familial expectations. The film was highest grossing film of 2023 in Italy and the number one film at the Brisbane Italian Film Festival. I had high hopes!

There's still tomorrow | Released in Australia October 2024 | Viewed October 2024 | Directed by Paola Cortellesi | Main cast: Paola Cortellesi, Valerio Mastandrea, and Romana Maggiora Vergano

The main character, Delia, lives in a working-class community in Rome in the late 1940s with her violent and domineering husband, Ivano, their three children, and father-in-law. As I was expecting, the film is a commentary on the treatment of women and domestic violence. The film focusses on the acceptance of violence against women at that time and the blame placed on the victims rather than the perpetrators. It's a very intentional exploration of these themes as the viewer is left in no doubt as to Delia's situation.

Despite the depressing nature of the subject matter, the film is quite stunning from a visual perspective, shot in black and white. It's a beautiful evocation of the era. The characters are authentic and I felt completely transported into Delia's world.

My problem, as other reviewers have commented, is with the ending. There's a lot of physical and verbal abuse throughout the film even though we're not always shown the full extent of it. We know this behaviour has been passed from father to son and it looks like the cycle might be continuing. Delia's attempt to break it is bizarre (no spoilers here). Furthermore, the audience is led to believe Delia is planning an escape and this doesn't ring true with what we see is her love and care for her children.

There is a lot of build up to the final scene and I found myself on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen to Delia. Given that build up, the final scene is odd and completely disconnected from everything that had gone on before in the story. The political statement the director (who played the role of Delia) seemed to be trying to make was lost in that ending, I felt, or she was trying to make said political statement without connecting it to the characters in her film.

My other criticism relates to a super weird musical scene where an episode of domestic violence is orchestrated like a slapstick comedy film. I get that director was trying to show the violence without being violent but it felt jarring to me and lessened the terrible things that happened to Delia on a regular basis.

Overall, a beautifully-shot and provocative film that did not go where I thought it should have gone to convey the message that (I think) the director was trying to convey. I was left a bit shellshocked at the end, to be honest.

Rating: ⭐⭐