Villa Amalia

Captivating French screen actress Isabelle Huppert stars alongside Jean-Hugues Anglade in her fifth collaboration with director Benoît Jacquot: a passionate and arresting story of a woman who abandons everything to find herself. Adapted from the acclaimed novel All the Mornings of the World, by Pascal Quignard, Huppert stars as Ann, a world-class pianist whose world shifts when she witnesses her husband kissing another woman.
As she steps away from the scene of her husband’s betrayal, Ann immediately begins to dissect and rationalise her life. Without hesitation she abandons her husband, her career, her apartment and her family; resolved to begin again without the constraints of possessions, familial ties or even her own identity. The drastic determination with which Ann decides “to end (her) former life” is shocking; but as you watch her gradual metamorphosis you realize that for Ann, nothing will ever be the same again; and that she must lose herself in order to find herself again.
Ann’s journey takes her to an isolated villa on the secluded island of Ischia, Italy: Villa Amalia. Perched high up on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the sparkling Tyrrhenian Sea, its isolation gives Anne the freedom of solitude, and it is within this basic, peaceful setting that Ann begins to start again.
This engaging, beautiful and strangely atmospheric film is made up of enigmas and bursts of clarity, of stops and starts, noise and silence. Anne gives little away in terms of her thoughts and feelings, and her unwillingness to wallow or over-analyse hides a depth of character that comes out in her composing. The soundtrack is a reflection of Ann’s internal dialogue: at times abrupt, and angular, at others thoughtful and richly melodic.

Villa Amalia is a film about identity, and about the many layers of emotion and memory with which each of us define one selves. As Anne discovers, there are some things in life that may be felt but not necessarily understood.

Benoît Jacquot and Isabelle Huppert have created a thought-provoking, enchanting film that I can thoroughly recommend. Be aware that the film is subtitled - enjoy the lyricism of the French language, which simply adds to the artistic quality of the film.