On 5 February, close to Valentine’s Day, Io + Te by Valentina De Amicis will be released in Italian cinemas. An intense, imperfect and deeply contemporary love story, the film pays close attention to affective dynamics and the emotional fragilities of the present. Cinematography is by Luca Ciuti CCS. The leading roles are played by Matteo Paolillo and Ester Pantano, alongside Eva Cela, Camilla Semino Favro, Antonio De Matteo and Pia Lanciotti. The film is produced by Roberto Venuso and Federica Artiano for Genesis S.r.l., with distribution handled by Artimagiche Film. The project was developed with the support of the Marche Film Commission – Fondazione Marche Cultura and has the patronage of the Municipality of Loreto and the Municipality of Porto Recanati. The film is also supported by the Rainbow Group.
She is Mia, 36, a successful gynaecologist, independent, allergic to stable relationships, used to experiencing love as something to be consumed and then left behind. She loves to experiment, to change, not to get attached. Her work is orderly and methodical, and precisely for this reason in her private life she seeks the opposite: new emotions, encounters without promises, stories that do not demand a future. He is Leo, 26, a poet by nature, allergic to social media, in love with music and authentic things, with a vision of love that seems to belong to another era. Their meeting happens almost by chance, in a bar, interrupting an ordinary date. From there, a sweeping, unconventional relationship takes shape, built on passion, complicity and sharing. But, as so often happens, falling in love is only the beginning. When reality breaks in, with its load of responsibilities, fears and questions, everything changes.
Luca Ciuti told us:
‘I shot the film with a Sony Venice in Full Frame and the recent series of Cooke Panchro FF lenses. The film is almost entirely handheld and was shot on location in the Marche region, locations that strongly recall the images of the master Luigi Ghirri, to whose gaze I feel particularly connected and which inspired us during the preparation phase, even though it was not necessary for the film to recreate the same sense of suspension. I tried to develop an analogue look reminiscent of Kodak 500T 5279 film stock in terms of curve and colour rendition, with particular attention to blues and reds. Io + Te is an independent film, shot with the bare minimum of lighting, both for production and artistic reasons. The director Valentina De Amicis, in the style of major overseas filmmakers such as Derek Gianfrance or Drake Doremus, required the use of space almost always at 360 degrees, or close to it, in order to leave the actors and the camera free to move in a natural and spontaneous way. It was therefore necessary to reduce limitations to a minimum: from a cinematographic point of view, a stimulating and creative challenge. We sought to capture the essence of each scene by keeping the number of cuts to a minimum, unless strictly necessary, in order to remain immersed in the world of the story together with its characters. For equipment rental we relied on DVision Movie People, and I did the colour grading with Simona Infante.’
