Previously been known for her acting and writing work on pictures like Leonardo D’Agostini’s The Champion and Simone Godano’s An Almost Ordinary Summer (both 2019), Giulia Louise Steigerwalt makes an accomplished debut with Settembre. Based on true-life stories that she had heard and stored away, this latter-day commedia all’italiana is the latest presentation from the splendid folks at CinemaItaliaUK.
Francesca (Barbara Ronchi) is in a rut. Husband Alberto (Andrea Sartoretti) barely communicates with her and spends his evenings playing cards, while teenage son Sergio is starting to lead his own life. She confides her misery to best friend Debora (Thony), who is eminently sympathetic because her spouse, Marco (Andrea Venditti), is cheating on her with another woman.
Adding to Francesca’s worries is a hospital appointment because Doctor Gugliemo (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is worried about an ultrasound result. He is also going through a bad patch, as his wife has left him and he seeks solace in an 18 year-old street prostiture called Ana (Tesa Litvan). She is alone in Rome, having come from Eastern Europe to find employment. Her ambition is to go to beauty school, but she also has a crush on Matteo (Enrico Borello), who works on the bakery counter at the local supermarket. He asks to accompany her to Mass and she worries about how she is ever going to tell him the truth.
Sergio (Luca Nozzoli) is also shy and has a crush on classmate, Maria (Margherita Rebeggiani). However, his pal asks her out first and she confides in best friend Simona (Arianna Ascoli) that she has no idea what to do with boys. As he is acting as intermediary, Sergio offers to give Maria some tips and even drops his trousers so she doesn’t get a shock at how ugly male genitalia is. Maria has watched some porn links that Simona has sent her, but she is still puzzled by kissing and Sergio helps her practice through a strip of clingfilm so that his mate will still be her first kiss.
Much to their mutual surprise, Francesca and Debora have just had their first kiss after the former receives bad news from the hospital. They are interrupted by Alberto and say nothing more about the matter, even though each felt a pang of longing. By contrast, Gugliemo is stung when Ana tells him about Matteo and bluntly informs him that he is far too old for her. Moreover, she introduces him to
Matteo as a friend of her grandfather’s, when they bump into each other at a burger van. Confused by her embrace with Debora, Francesca tries to coax Alberto into discussing the distance that has grown between them. He is too busy to talk, however, and Francesca and Debora wind up cuddling on the sofa after supper and joking that life would be easier if they moved in together. Sergio and Maria also share secrets, while he shows her how to put a condom on a toothpaste tube. He confesses to having been unable to rise to the occasion with a girl on holiday and Maria reassures him that things will be better with the right girl.
Matteo invites Ana to spend the day at the beach with his friends. She is nervous, but everyone makes her feel welcome and she enjoys feeling part of the group, as they share sandwiches and beer. Reluctant to let Marco see where she lives, Ana insists on being dropped at the bus stop. He gently kisses her goodnight and she likes him so much she feels compelled to tell him she’s a prostitute.
As Francesca tucks him in, Sergio also confides that he’s smitten with a girl in his class and she scootches him over to cuddle. She’s woken next morning by a call from the hospital and she arrives on a high after finding a spliff in her son’s room. Gugliemo informs her that the MRI scan has discovered nothing of concern and she is so relieved that she decides to follow Alberto when he goes out that evening. Much to her annoyance, she learns that he really does go to play cards and stumbles into the nearest bar for a red wine.
She is surprised to find Gugliemo sitting next to her and he admits that he thought she would be happier after being given the all-clear. Francesca tells him about Alberto and he reveals how he had lost his wife by ceasing to think of them as a couple. On a train journey on a sweltering day, he had only bought one drink from the buffet and had consumed it by the time he returned to their seat. He regrets his selfishness and realises that he risks losing Ana by putting his own feelings before hers.
As Gugliemo drops Francesca home at 3am, they are confronted by Alberto and a scuffle breaks out. Returning from an assignation, Marco intervenes and takes Alberto to casualty for stitches to a head wound. Debora joins them and sits next to Francesca, as Alberto continues to question why his wife was out so late with another man. Marco backs his pal, only for Francesca to expose that he had been with his mistress rather than playing cards and Debora brushes off his protests of innocence.
Exasperated, Alberto goes to the vending machine. When he only buys a drink for himself, Francesca clasps Debora’s hand and announces that they are moving in together. She suggests that the boys take one house and they’ll take the other.
Debora nods and they leave together, with their husbands feeling stunned. Lying on his bed, Gugliemo decides the time has come to put his life in order. He goes to Ana’s spot and beckons her towards his car. She is reluctant to get inside, but he offers to put her through beauty school and let her live in his apartment while she studies. Thrilled at being given a chance to realise her dream, Ana accepts and ventures back to the bakery in the hope that Matteo can forgive her. Maria is also delighted when Sergio invites her to a concert and she clings to him on the back of a borrowed scooter.
Neatly tying up loose ends, while leaving each situation tantalisingly hanging, this is a delightful first feature by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt. Alberto and Marco are boorish caricatures, while there’s something a little sinister about an ageing gynaecologist (no matter how sad he is) seeking solace with a teenage migrant prostitute. But the female characters experiencing varying degrees of first love are deftly delineated, with Francesca recognising the sole dependable in her life as her uncertainties mount, Debora trusting in feelings she never knew she had, and Maria discovering that there is much more to dating boys than flutters of the heart.
It might have been helpful to know more about Ana’s reasons for coming to Italy and how she wound up streetwalking. However, she manages to bring about Gugliemo’s redemption without undue religiosity, while the innocence of her relationship with Matteo is truly touching and brings to mind Guilietta Masina’s faith in fate in Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria (1957). Such little touches emphasise the sophistication of Steigerwalt’s approach.
Croatian Tesa Litvan is winningly down to earth as Ana, with the scene of her putting on lipstick ahead of the beach trip mirroring Margherita Rebeggiani’s experiments with make-up before she washes her face before her mother sees her. The ease of her rapport with Luca Nozzoli is also charming, as is his bedtime chat with Barbara Ronchi, who poignantly conveys the emotional numbness of a woman whose dreams have been dashed and whose fears seem about to be realised. Her bond with singer-actress Thony is beautifully judged, especially as they search for meaning in each other’s eyes following their first kiss.
Editor Gianni Vezzosi seamlessly links the episodes, while Vladan Radovic’s photography is equally efficient, as it favours close-ups to capture thought and emotion. Cristina Del Zotto’s production design is also full of neat details, such as the unwashed dishes cluttering the dispirited doctor’s darkened apartment, the unappreciated cosiness of Francesca’s home, and the kiss-height snapshots stuck to the indoor mirror of Maria’s wardrobe. It’s unlikely to happen, but it would be nice to know how everyone is getting on in three or four years time.
