On the afternoon of March 8, the Italian film "There is Tomorrow" (C'è ancora domani) held its premiere at Shanghai Grand Cinema. The film's director, screenwriter, and lead actress Paola Cortellesi also traveled thousands of miles to attend the premiere to exchange creative experience with Chinese media and audiences. For the audience, watching such a work on women's liberation on Women's Day is undoubtedly of special significance.
There is Tomorrow poster
"There's Tomorrow" premiere at Shanghai Grand Cinema
"There's Tomorrow" is set in 1946, when women first won the right to vote. It uses black humor and surrealist narrative techniques to show the ordinary yet magnificent daily life of an ordinary woman in just a few days. The film opens with the famous quote of Italian journalist Anna Garofalo: "We hold the ballot as if we were holding a love letter." Then the screen jumps to black and white images, and the protagonist Delia's day begins with a slap in the face by her husband.
This middle-aged woman who lives in a poor neighborhood in Rome, spends her days taking care of her family and working to supplement her family income. What worries her most is the marriage of her eldest daughter Marcella, and what scares her most is her husband Ivano's fist. She can only get some comfort from her jokes with her friend Marisa and a few words with her childhood friend, the auto mechanic Nino. However, a mysterious letter that looks like an election certificate stirs up Delia's heart, and she wants to change the status quo of her life.
Paula Cortez
There is Tomorrow is the first feature film directed by Paola Corte Reci, who also participated in the writing of the script and played the protagonist Delia. At the David Award, the highest award in Italian film last year, the film won five awards including Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, and Best New Director. After that, There is Tomorrow went beyond Italy and was released in many places in Europe. Now it will be released in North America and China on March 7 and March 8 respectively. At present, it has a score of 9.3 points (out of 10) on Douban, and its freshness on the American film review collection website Rotten Tomatoes has also reached 94%.
Although she had been tired from the journey, Paola Corte Rei was still radiant at the premiere in Shanghai, totally different from Delia who always looked tired in the film. After expressing her gratitude to the audience, she first talked about her original intention of filming There is Tomorrow: "I want to dedicate this film to all Italian women in the past. They had no power to speak out and were not valued in society, but at the same time they were an important part of social development. However, the discipline they received at that time was often: you are worthless, you are nothing, your role is to provide services to others, and you can only be a mother who manages the family."
Delia, who works odd jobs, is always in a hurry
Delia often suffered domestic violence from her husband
"This film was made 80 years ago, when domestic violence was not a scandal in Italy. It was part of women's daily lives. This is impossible in Italy today. If something like this happened, it would be widely reported. Despite this, some people's ideas have not kept up with the times, and other injustices against women still exist in our society."
Paula Cortese also explained the historical background of the film: "In the past, the voting certificate would be sent to your home by mail. After getting the voting certificate, you would go to the voting area to exchange it for your ballot. For those women who had never had the right to vote before, receiving this email was a very important moment in her life. For Delia, the ballot also represented greater authority than her husband, which was the right given to her by the state. We may have become accustomed to this now, but for women of that era, it was definitely an exciting moment."
Delia and her friend Marissa take a break from work
Delia and other women wait to vote for first time
During the exchange session, Paula Cortress also answered questions from the audience and talked about the trade-offs in her creative techniques. As to why she did not directly show the scene of Delia being subjected to domestic violence, but used a surreal way such as singing and dancing, Cortress said frankly: "I did deliberately not want to show too many details of domestic violence in the film. Because too many images of domestic violence may cause the audience to lose focus. Using singing and dancing to show it is also to emphasize that domestic violence is actually a part of the protagonist Delia's daily life, and it is a part that keeps repeating."
As for why he chose black and white, Cortressi said: "When I heard my grandmother tell stories similar to Delia's that happened in that era, black and white images appeared in my mind. And the background of the film is the 1940s, which naturally reminds people of Italian neo-realist films - neo-realist works are all black and white. So, I think the memory of this story should be black and white images."
The most lively part of the premiere was when an audience member discussed the ending of There Is Tomorrow with Curt Lacey: This movie does not follow the traditional perfect ending. Delia accidentally lost the chance to elope with Nino and went to the voting station instead. So what changes will she face after she votes? Where will "Nora" go after slamming the door and leaving?
Delia's biggest concern is her daughter Marcella.
Delia and Nino who has always loved her
In this regard, Curt Lacey said emotionally, "When I was writing the script, I kept thinking, if a woman with some experience like me saw that this story ended with a perfect love, would I feel a little regretful? Compared to seeing the protagonist gain redemption because of love or another man, I would rather see her usher in a new life because of her self-awakening. I believe that the audience will find it more difficult to calm down after seeing the latter ending, after all, self-awakening is more important than love."
"Of course, people always want to see lovers get married. You can find that I set up many foreshadowings in the film, but most Italian audiences still thought that it would end with a sweet love. However, when they saw the end, they felt that the current ending was also very happy. Love is of course important, but I want to use this film to reflect that the awakening of individual women is more important than love. A small person like Delia chose to escape from the miserable living conditions and elope with the one she truly loves, which is of course a happy ending for everyone. However, when she has experienced individual awakening and found confidence, even if she finally chooses to return to her original life, she has already completed the transformation and become a brand new person."
