L’ospite aka The Guest, written by Duccio Chiarini, Davide Lantieri, Marco Pettenello, directed by the former - Eight out of 10

L’ospite aka The Guest, written by Duccio Chiarini, Davide Lantieri, Marco Pettenello, directed by the former

Eight out of 10

If not explosive, the introducing scene of this interesting Italian motion picture is quite sensational in that we have Chiara aka talented Silvia D’Amico naked and Guido aka the main character, L’ospite, aka remarkable Daniele Parisi, also undressed, with his head between the legs of his lover, in what is not so startling anymore, in a world of cinema that has abandoned the walls, the boundaries that Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood would have the censors ban suggestions of sexual acts, never mind nudity, which is not to be regretted, unless we think of what some thinkers maintain was an age that invited film makers to be subtle, creative and instead of showing couples copulating on screen, they would go to extremes to have romance hide secrets, intriguing bonds and allusions that made the savor, spice of so many “Screwball comedies”…

Chiara and Guido have come to an important point in their relationship, which could become a nadir, may be the challenge they need to become ever more attached to each other, once they will have overcome this adversity, or it could mark The End of the Affair, if they do not find solutions to their diverging views on…the couch, which she dislikes and he enjoys, the pairs of underwear that are received from his mother and to the woman indicate a lack of maturity, a too strong dependence on the parent probably and most importantly, the fact that while she thinks they need to ‘grow’, to change the status quo, and try to make more money, he is quite content with their situation, although he admits that her complaints are correct in that they cannot afford to travel and they are quite limited in their means…

The Hedonic Treadmill concept  refers to the fact that we get used to material goods, the state of affairs in what has to do with the car – no matter how expensive it is – the watch, the clothes – of which we anyway wear in a proportion of 20% of them for 80% of the time in a famous ratio – and we are much better in spending the income on experiences and in the case of the couple in the movie, he may be right in that Love is the ultimate ingredient of happiness and sense of meaning, fulfilment and achievement, while she also has a point, given that in dire circumstances – it is debatable if this applies to their smaller apartment, the presumably inadequate car that he has to repair – being happy is harder…living on the streets does not bring about Nirvana, unless one is an august, seraphic and balmy Buddhist or Zen master…

L’ospite and his girlfriend may test the 7 Principles of Making Marriage Work, by the most respected, best expert on relationships in the world, John Gottman, the guru that is famous for the accuracy of his predictions and analysis, he has over 90% success in foretelling which couples would stay together and which would separate, after watching them interact for only some minutes…

The Four Horsemen of the apocalypse, as presented in the 7 Principles are Stonewalling, Criticism, Defensiveness and Contempt and it is hard to say if Chiara and Guido descend into all of them, but the fact is that when she mentions her intentions of applying for a job in Canada, he is not thrilled and Criticism and Stonewalling follow, after which she says she wants to be alone for some time, to think about the future, see how she feels, understand better what it is that they have in store for them.

By the way, the opening scene was not about oral sex, the man is not there, between the legs of his partner to pleasure her, but to find the condom that got lost and was broken in the act of coitus, which prompts one of the discussions about the pill, the prospect of having a baby, which is crazy for her, given that they have a status that does not look well, materially, and he is rather unhappy because he sees the traditional family unit, with children and married man and wife as the Secret of Bliss…

Guido has it right in that studies have shown that the Happiest men and Women do not have in common great – literal – wealth, but wonderful connections with family and friends…nevertheless, the point of The Guest is that some prejudice on the matter of the ‘perfect unit’ is not in order, for once they argue, the man moves and becomes L’ospite, the travelling friend who sleeps with others and is quite amazed to see how much they dispute and quarrel and even the pregnant colleague is in fact looking for wellbeing, pleasure, satisfaction outside her home, for she has fallen in love with someone else…

The jealous protagonist follows his lover, who is a tour guide, but longs for a different position in Canada, where one of her mates is a director of a museum – a less relevant one objects Guido, but a director nonetheless, as the lover insists - where her superior studies and diplomas would be good for more than such a lowly position – I have been a guide for some decades too.

When Chiara takes a foreigner, possibly an American, on a private tour with her scooter, the infuriated, now abandoned man follows her in the car borrowed from the parents and when he catches up with them, he makes a scene and shouts ‘che cazzo’, translated with ‘what the fuck’, though it looks like it is more of ‘what the cock’… anyway, the girl tries to make him calm down, in a quite restrained manner, though the character was quite insulting and foolish…

Guido would gradually understand more and become sympathetic to the position of his ex- partner, even going as far as to at least claim that he would accept it if she confessed to an affair, and he would travel to Canada if need be, expressing the desire at the place where he had been working on an essay, but it might not work for them, alas…