06/10/2009

Love from a different angle: first came Eve, then Adam. First woman with her desires, doubts and courageous choices. Then man. So says Vittorio Moroni in his new documentary entitled, appropriately enough, Eve and Adam, which centres on three “normal” women struggling with special relationships.

Seventy-something Erika (the nom de plume of a romance novelist) has led an adventurous life and has two daughters, from a Japanese ex-husband, who no longer speak to her – and is now married to a 30-year-old Senegalese man. Deborah, a small-town porn star who answers erotic phone calls on local TV and has acted in a couple of films “that also have a bit of a plot”, is now a stay-at-home mom. Lastly, there’s Veronica, who after the sudden death of her boyfriend went to Lourdes as a nurse and fell in love with a man suffering from multiple sclerosis. Despite his worsening condition, they married and have two children.

After making You Must be the Wolf and Licu’s Holiday, Moroni returns to exploring difficult relationships. For this film, produced by 50notturno, he has been working on a somewhat special self-distribution approach. Every evening, he offers his audiences at Rome’s 4 Fontane Cinema an apple as they go into the theatre, and a photo still from the film as they leave.

So far, this strategy has borne fruit, and not just apples. The 4 Fontane Cinema had decided to extend Eve and Adam at least through October 8, after the encouraging results of the first week.