A beloved comedy film about domestic violence attracts Italians in droves

A film that focuses on domestic violence is not an obvious crowd-pleaser, even if it is directed by and stars one of Italy’s most popular artists.

Yet it is precisely such a film, “C’è ancora domani” (“There is still tomorrow”), the directorial debut of comedian Paola Cortellesi, which immediately reached number 1 at the national box office after it was released in theaters at the end of October. , and this week became one of the country’s 10 highest-grossing films ever.

“Definitely, I’m surprised,” Cortellesi said during an interview at a bar in her leafy neighborhood in Rome, although she added: “It’s a good film and I’m satisfied with what I did.” She attributed the film’s widespread popularity to “the fact that it had struck a chord in the country.”

The film – which is both heartbreaking and uplifting – came at a time when domestic violence, femicide and women’s rights have dominated public debate since the death last month of a 22-year-old student, Giulia Cecchettin, in a case in which her ex-boyfriend is being investigated because of her murder.

There’s Still Tomorrow is set in 1946, in a Rome still struggling with poverty and the consequences of World War II. Cortellesi, 50, who co-wrote the screenplay, said she had been thinking about the film’s themes – inequality, domestic violence and women’s rights – “for a long time”.

“I wanted to make a contemporary film set in the past, because I think a lot of things have unfortunately remained the same,” Cortellesi said. “Of course progress has been made, rights have changed, laws have changed, but not completely – that is, proportionately, not in mentality.”

The film captures the daily struggles of the main character, Delia, whose husband abuses her in a world where women’s roles are undervalued and their opinions are contemptuously ignored. It is loosely inspired by the stories Cortellesi’s grandmothers told her as a child about what it was like to be a woman during that time.

The film is in black and white – as the filmmaker said she always imagined the old stories of her grandmothers to be told – a choice that is a conscious nod to the neorealist film tradition that blossomed in Italy in the aftermath of World War II. Cinema buffs will also note that the film is shot for the first eight minutes in the 4:3 aspect ratio, which dominated early cinema and television, but then the screen widens as the opening credits roll to “Calvin,” a 1998 song by the Jon Spencer Blues explosion.

Chiara Tognolotti, professor of history of Italian cinema at the University of Pisa, noted that Cortellesi followed a common theme of early Italian cinema by “depicting women who try to change their existence, to break the typical script that a woman should have persisted in overthrowing her. Unpleasant.”

The film explores the tension between the “patriarchal structure that informs Italian society” and a desire to recognize the importance of women’s social role, “which in fact already exists” but is not always recognized, Tognolotti said.

Cortellesi has been entertaining Italian audiences for decades. She honed her writing and acting skills as a comedian on radio and television, where she used her talent for facial expressions and a melodious voice to pretend to be famous singers – mainly Italian, but also Cher, Britney Spears And Jennifer Lopez.

Her stage and television repertoire includes several monologues that use comedy to tackle difficult issues such as chauvinism and domestic violence.

She started working in cinema alongside some of Italy’s most popular comics and leading men, winning a shelf full of acting awards. When she started writing screenplays about a decade ago, her stories often focused on social justice issues involving women, “maybe she was joking about it,” but she was also making a point, she said.

Stepping into the director’s chair felt like a natural progression: after writing several scripts that were turned into films by others, she decided that she wanted to bring her vision to life in addition to her words. “I thought maybe it was time to tell my story my way,” she said. Producers who had worked with Cortellesi in the past agreed and decided to support her. “It was the right time,” she said.

They could also count on her appeal to the public.

“I don’t think we should underestimate Cortellesi’s star power,” said Tognolotti, a professor of film history. “She is very popular through television, through her films,” which “appeal to a wide audience” because of the variety of roles she has played. “That’s one of the reasons why this film is so successful.”

In addition to the box office boom, “There’s Still Tomorrow” has taken off in other ways Cortellesi couldn’t have imagined.

The film was shown at the Italian Senate on the occasion of the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25. That week, more than 55,000 teenage students watched the film in cinemas across Italy, followed by a live-streamed question and answer session with the director and some of the cast. And high school teachers have written to Cortellesi to say they took their classes to see the film so they could discuss the issues the film raises.

Elena Biaggioni, the vice president of Di Re, a national anti-violence network run by women’s organizations, said that by reaching a large audience, the film contributed to national cultural awareness about domestic violence, aiding efforts led by women’s groups, the news media and parliamentary committees that have investigated femicide. “I hope it’s a driving force,” Biaggioni said.

Cortellesi said she had no intention of making a propaganda film. But she wants Italy’s younger generations, including her 10-year-old daughter, to know about the history of women’s rights in Italy. “She needs to know that these rights need to be defended and that they could be at risk,” she said.

She deliberately wrote the role of the abusive husband as a loser – “frightening, but also foolish, because he’s an idiot” – so that he wouldn’t be someone young men could look up to. “There couldn’t be even the slightest risk that boys would want to emulate him,” she said. “When they see him, they have to say, ‘I want to be anything but,’ because he has no appeal.”

In the near future, Cortellesi will tour with the film, in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. “I want it to have longevity,” she said.

She has also discovered that she has a love for directing. “I’m not giving up,” she said.