Open My Heart
A strongly narrated tale about obsessive love between two sisters, "Open My Heart" by young documaker Giada Colagrande starts as a quasi-voyeuristic look at forbidden passion, then slowly turns to a very Italian film noir.
A strongly narrated tale about obsessive love between two sisters, “Open My Heart” by young documaker Giada Colagrande starts as a quasi-voyeuristic look at forbidden passion, then slowly turns to a very Italian film noir. Though the racy material is used more ritualistically than naturalistically, story still has a perverse fascination, despite some technical clumsiness and stiff thesping. With local critical support, this mini-budgeted tyro effort could find an audience in Italy, and its Venice bow could open the hearts of offshore fest programmers.
Related Stories
VIP+Despite ‘Joker’ Folly and ‘The Penguin’ Success, DC Studios Still Untested
JBL Headphones Are Down to $27 for Prime Day
Colagrande casts herself as the 17-year-old Caterina, a shy girl who loves art and music, pretty in an Audrey Tautou way. She lives in a modest apartment with her much older sister and lover Maria (Natalie Cristiani), a prostitute. This arrangement has been going on since their mother, also a prostitute, died when Caterina was 2. By now she’s used to Maria’s clients ringing the doorbell, but she still turns up the music to drown out the squeaking bedsprings.
Popular on Variety
Maria is her mother, lover and warden, for it soon becomes apparent the younger girl is a prisoner in the apartment. She goes out only to attend dance class, chaperoned by her sister. But this little taste of freedom sparks a mutual attraction with the school caretaker Giovanni (Claudio Botosso).
To nip their relationship in the bud, Maria coolly invites Giovanni home to bed. Though humiliated, Caterina is not beaten, and with sis in the next room she seduces him with a sexy dance number. Clever Maria turns the tables again, making Caterina participate in an unwholesome threesome. But her repressive efforts are futile against the girl’s newly discovered emotions. The film proceeds down even more perverse and unbelievable paths, until it loses touch with reality altogether and ends up a pure fairy tale.
Shooting in DV video in just two locations, Colagrande makes a virtue of her limited means by integrating the film’s necessarily minimal look with controlled shots and brief flashes of scenes.
In the central role, she bravely doffs her clothes in a series of increasingly explicit bedroom scenes. At the same time, she creates a strong impression of coy helplessness as Caterina, who gets what she wants despite massive psychological manipulation. Rest of the cast is, however, too leaden to get far with pic’s big themes, from incest and obsession to the nature of the couple.
Jump to CommentsOpen My Heart
Italy
More from Variety
‘Roswell’ 25 Years Later: Creator Jason Katims on ‘Coming of Age’ on the Alien Drama, Struggling With The WB’s Notes and Being Inundated With Tabasco Bottles
What Lionsgate’s Partnership Deal With Runway Means
Anna Sawai on Her ‘Surreal’ Emmy Win for ‘Shogun,’ Playing Heartbreak on ‘Pachinko’ — and Whether She’d Ever Sing On Screen
‘The Simpsons’ Spoofs ‘The White Lotus’ Opening Credits With This Spot-On Parody (EXCLUSIVE)
How YouTube and Netflix Copied Each Other’s Homework
‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ Chief on Married Tarlos, Writing Grace Off and Plans for Series Finale Emergency: ‘We’re Going “Last of Us” With a Little “Chernobyl”‘
Most Popular
Inside the 'Joker: Folie à Deux' Debacle: Todd Phillips ‘Wanted Nothing to Do’ With DC on the $200 Million Misfire
‘Kaos’ Canceled After One Season at Netflix
‘Menendez Brothers’ Netflix Doc Reveals Erik’s Drawings of His Abuse and Lyle Saying ‘I Would Much Rather Lose the Murder Trial Than Talk About Our…
Kathy Bates Won an Oscar and Her Mom Told Her: ‘You Didn't Discover the Cure for Cancer,’ So ‘I Don't Know What All the Excitement Is About…
Saoirse Ronan Says Losing Luna Lovegood Role in ‘Harry Potter’ Has ‘Stayed With Me Over the Years’: ‘I Was Too Young’ and ‘Knew I Wasn't Going to Get…
‘Joker 2’ Director Says Arthur Fleck Was Never Joker: ‘He's an Unwitting Icon’ and Joker Is ‘This Idea That Gotham People Put on Him…
‘Joker 2’ Axed Scene of Lady Gaga’s Lee Kissing a Woman at the Courthouse Because ‘It Had Dialogue in It’ and ‘Got in the Way’ of a Music…
Andrew Garfield Says Sex Scene With Florence Pugh in ‘We Live in Time’ Went a ‘Little Bit Further’ Than Intended: ‘We Never Heard Cut…
‘Skyfall’ Director Sam Mendes Says James Bond Studio Prefers Filmmakers ‘Who Are More Controllable’: ‘I Would Doubt’ I’d…
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried to Star in ‘The Housemaid’ Adaptation From Director Paul Feig, Lionsgate
Must Read
- Film
COVER | Sebastian Stan Tells All: Becoming Donald Trump and Starring in 2024’s Most Controversial Movie
By Andrew Wallenstein 3 weeks
- TV
Menendez Family Slams Netflix’s ‘Monsters’ as ‘Grotesque’ and ‘Riddled With Mistruths’: ‘The Character Assassination of Erik and Lyke Is Repulsive…
- TV
‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Part 2 to Air on CBS After Paramount Network Debut
- TV
50 Cent Sets Diddy Abuse Allegations Docuseries at Netflix: ‘It’s a Complex Narrative Spanning Decades’ (EXCLUSIVE)
- Shopping
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Sets Digital and Blu-ray/DVD Release Dates
Sign Up for Variety Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Variety Confidential
ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXF%2Bjp%2BgpaVfp7K3tcSwqminoJq7brnYZp%2BemaKpenJ%2Bj2lsbW5kaH1w