Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” may be the most financially successful film ever directed by the director and the highest-grossing production of 2023, but it was beaten at the box office in Italy by a title also made by a woman, which speaks directly to the female experience, violence and femicide .
“There’s Still Tomorrow” (C’e Ancora Domani) by the 50-year-old actress, writer and singer Paola Cortelesi is now being released across Europe. This film became a phenomenon in Italy last year, taking more money than both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”. As of last month, it had grossed around £31.5 million in cinemas, making it the highest-grossing film of 2023 and the highest-grossing film directed by an Italian woman to date.
Cortelezi told the BBC that she still can’t believe such a success:
– No one could have ever predicted this kind of affection from the audience! I’ve been an actress for almost 30 years, I’ve been writing screenplays for the last 10, and now I’ve made my first film at the age of 50. To share box office success with a huge film like ‘Barbie’, which also deals with women’s experiences, is an amazing thing!
However, one of the reasons “There’s Still Tomorrow” may have touched so many hearts in Italy is that the heroine Delia (played by Cortelesi) suffers violent physical and emotional abuse from her husband. In the film, Delia is a housewife and mother living in poverty in post-war Rome in 1946, the year Italian women first got the vote.
However, the film’s story resonates with contemporary Italian audiences because according to recent police statistics, 120 women were murdered in Italy in 2023, roughly one every three days. The report states that slightly more than 50 percent of them were killed by partners or ex-partners. A quarter of them were killed by children – in 89 percent of those cases, the son.
The issue of femicide erupted in Italy in November 2023, a few weeks after the release of the movie “There’s Still Tomorrow”. Mass protests were held over the murder of 22-year-old student Julia Cheketin, who was allegedly killed by her ex-boyfriend, who is awaiting trial. Her funeral was attended by thousands of people, and her death sparked large protests and calls for greater protection for women.
Cortelezi says her film is partly an attempt to explore a cultural mentality that she claims has “lasted for millennia.” So-called “crimes of passion” were only criminalized in Italy in 1981, and in July 2023 judges in Rome made headlines around the world when a school janitor was acquitted of molesting a 17-year-old schoolgirl because the sexual assault lasted less than ten seconds. On Instagram and TikTok in Italy, everyone shared the case together with the hashtag #10seconds.
– The topic of killing women is, unfortunately, very, very topical, especially in Italy. But femicide is often the tragic end of something that didn’t start that way. What we don’t know is the history that culminates in a horrific act of violence and the death of a woman every 72 hours in Italy. We can only conclude the history of violence, which is often not reported even to the authorities before it escalates – explains Cortelezi.
The director says that the topic of violence against women has been a part of her work for years, although she says she has not personally experienced it.
– I wanted to make a contemporary film set in the past in order to compare what has changed and what has remained the same. Maybe now, as women, we have certain rights and guarantees, but what hasn’t changed in society is this mentality that distorts love and turns it into possession. That’s why we need better education!
The story of There’s Still Tomorrow is set in 1946, shot in black and white (a tribute to the classic Italian filmmakers of the period) and deals with themes such as domestic violence, but ironic humor still permeates everything.
– When I wrote screenplays before, I used the same kind of language. It is not a comedy per se, but some very serious topics are discussed in the language of comedy.
When “There’s Still Tomorrow” premiered in Italy, critics described it as a “sentimental story of suffering and self-sacrifice”, adding that Cortelesi “pulls it off with style”.
The director reveals that men made up 45 percent of the audience in Italy, which means a lot to her:
– This was never supposed to be a film against Italian men, but an invitation to share and walk together on the same path in life. I really didn’t want to take the men out of the story and point an accusing finger at them. I think because of the tone of the movie and the way all the characters were portrayed, the men actually identified with the female characters. This can be seen in the way they reacted during the film – says Cortelesi, adding that many men felt able to speak in the question and answer sessions after the screening and share their story, which was often really moving.
The actress and director calls her 11-year-old daughter her “muse” for the film and says it could be described as a “mother-daughter love story.”
– This whole project happened because I was reading her a book about women’s rights, and my daughter couldn’t believe that there was a time when our rights were not in the law. It occurred to me that we need to talk to the younger generations, that they need to understand that their rights are not given. Just because we achieve something, doesn’t mean it will be forever. I wanted, in a way, to start passing the baton on to the younger generation – concludes Paola Cortelezi.
Bonus video: BARBIE vs OPPENHEIMER
