A previously unseen behind-the-scenes documentary about one of Liliana Cavani’s most international films. From the challenging distraction of the on-set negotiations to get actors with different personalities and cultures – not to mention languages, including Italian, Japanese and English – to communicate, to scenes of relaxation during pauses in the shooting, Cavani scrutinises the psychological mechanisms that are part of the experience of love: enchantment, devotion, dedication. She tells Bachmann that a common thread creates an overarching theme to her work: the sweep of history, which unfolds between and within the depths of psychological relationships, through our self-awareness, and on the basis of the intensity of personal choices and actions. Her films often represent an attempt to respond to eternal questions that are common to us all; these queries cut across different art forms and branches of knowledge, be it great literature (Tanizaki, in this instance, among others), philosophy or theatre.

Riccardo Costantini