Me and You (Io e te)
Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci
2012
***
I found it difficult to watch Me and You and not wonder
how this was a film by the same man who bought us such greats such as The
Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900 and The Last Emperor. I wasn’t a huge fan
of 2003’s The Dreamers either but I had hoped that the last nine years was
enough time to give his next project some real thought. I liked the concept, I
just think it was totally wasted. It’s a sad looking swansong, that’s for sure.
The story is simple: young Lorenzo (Jacopo Olmo Antinori) has difficulties
communicating and relating to others – although I don’t think he autistic or
anything – he just prefers his own company and his own thoughts. When his class
goes to the mountains for a week on a skiing trip, Lorenzo secretly settles in
the basement of his apartment building, pocketing the trip’s fee to spend on
provisions. However, his happy solitude is interrupted with an unexpected
appearance of a strange girl called Olivia (Tea Falco), who turns out to be his
half-sister. Olivia, from his father’s first marriage, is nine years older than
him and he hasn’t seen in a long time. She asks if his parents are at home, and
he pretends not to know, thinking his parents might have asked her to
investigate. A short while later he hears someone trying to open the lock to
the basement and Olivia enters, looking for something in a box of her old
things. She doesn’t find it and leaves in desperation. In the middle of the
night she returns, knocking on the window and asking Lorenzo if she can stay
the night. At first he refuses categorically, but when she threatens to tell
everyone he is there, he backs down. This turns out to be useful, since his
mother calls again, more insistent than ever that she needs to speak to a
teacher, and he persuades Olivia to pretend to be one. It turns out, though,
that Olivia has become a drug addict and is suffering from withdrawal
from heroin, and this is why she’s in a desperate situation. She asks him
for some sleeping pills. The only place he can think of getting them is from
his grandmother (Veronica Lazar) who is dying in hospital. He visits her and finds
the pills in her handbag, but ends up spending much longer at the hospital than
intended when his grandmother wakes up and asks him to tell her a story. Once
back in the basement, Lorenzo finds Olivia passed out, almost dead. During his
absence she has rummaged through all the boxes and found and taken some
sleeping pills. She sleeps solidly for three days. By the end of the week, the
relationship between Lorenzo and Olivia has changed from hostility to
complicity, since they both feel rejected by society, both have secrets, and
both feel understood, without judgement, by the other. Olivia promises not to
use drugs anymore and they both promise to stay in touch. On the last morning
Lorenzo awakes to find a note Olivia has left, reminding him of their mutual
promise. I don’t want to speak ill of Bernardo Bertolucci, he was a great
director and I really admire that he made Me and You so late in his career,
especially in relatively bad health, but I don’t think there was enough of him
in the story. His greatest films are the ones where he has thrown himself into
the picture, this film feels like someone else’s, Niccolò Ammaniti’s. I
actually think that the two leads give great performances and the direction
itself is adequate, I just don’t think the film worked as a whole. I think I
would have preferred more static shots, with the odd contrasting moving
sequence. The dialogue was also lacking, indeed, a really good script could
have lifted the film no end. I did like the interjection of music and I could really
relate to it at times, I just couldn’t connect with the characters. I think it
all happened a little too fast and as well performed as Olivia was, I’m not
sure I ever truly believed she existed. I think the difference between the
original script and what was actually filmed was the biggest let down. I feel
that a bold conclusion was softened for a wider audience, a decision that I
feel backfired spectacularly. It’s a firework without ignition, it’s all there
ready to explode but nothing ends up lighting it and even if a light was found,
towards the end the wick becomes far to damp to ignite anyway. I’m being
perhaps overly harsh, but this is the great Bernardo Bertolucci, it should have
been a masterpiece. Like I said, it’s tragic that this was to be his last film
and it’s not without its magic, it just makes me sad on several different
levels is all.
