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Don't Tell

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'La Bestia nel cuore' ('The Beast in the Heart' released in the USA as 'Don't Tell') is an intense Italian film written and directed by Cristina Comencini that tackles subject matter so visceral that the telling of it requires complete concentration from the audience in order to feel the power of the impact at the end. It is a tough film to watch because of the story, but it is a superb film to watch because of the excellent cast and production crew.

Sabina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) is introduced to us in a cemetery where she is arranging for the interment of her dead parents: the mood for the story is subtly set. Sabina is a dubbing actress for translating films into Italian, a 'sell-out' acting job compared to the life of her live-in boyfriend Franco (Alessio Boni) who is a stage actor being tempted to accept a role in a TV series which pays more money than the stage. Sabina confesses she wants to get pregnant, she does, and with her pregnancy she begins to have nightmares of shadowy childhood memories. She is afraid to discuss these with Franco, or with her best friend Emilia (Stefania Rocca) who is blind and has been in love with Sabina since childhood. It seems the only person with whom she can confide her secret fears is her brother Daniele (Luigi Lo Cascio) who has moved from Italy to Charlottesville, VA where he is a professor at the University and has a happy family life with wife Anna (Lucy Akhurst) and two children. Sabina flies to the US to be with her brother and in the course of their reunion the two siblings uncover the beasts in their hearts: sexual abuse from their father now departed. How this discovery alters their lives is the dénouement of the film.

There are many subplots - infidelity on the part of Franco while Sabina is away, a lesbian relationship that develops between Emilia and another of Sabina's friends Maria (Angela Finocchiaro) - and Comencini draws subtle parallels between these twists along side the main story of incest discovery. Yet without concentration, these subplots can become distracting.

The acting is on the highest level and the changing locations are shot by cinematographer Fabio Cianchetti with sensitive respect of the nuances of suggestion encased in each place. The uncredited musical score is an admixture from Robert Schumann's piano sonata to contemporary works and serves to heighten the actions and mood. In Italian with subtitles. A film well worth watching. Grady Harp, August 06

Who say's Italian cinema is dead? With such films as "The Best of Youth", "Bread and Tulips", this marvelous film. "Don't Tell". The Italian cinema is alive and thriving more so now than it has since the fading of the masters Fellini, De Seca, and Visconti.
Film is the only great art from of the United States. We have no other artistic history that we can call truly ours. In Italy there is a great history of art and literature that is original, groundbreaking and innovative. Italian cinema as more in common with American film than it does with the rest of Europe. The Epic was born in Italy with "Quo Vadis" in 1913 and the advancements of the Italians influenced D.W. Griffith and others in burgeoning Hollywood.
American films were loved in Italy pre 1939 and after the war as well. Each country has devoured the other's film product with gusto and learned in the process what great cinema could be. The two cultures influence and shaped each other's new art of the 20th century. Operatic, melodrama, and grand sweeping emotions are at the core a staple of both cinemas. So what does this have to do with "Don't Tell" you may wonder?
This brilliant film is bi-national, in that it is set both in Italy and the United States. It has a sense of blending of the two cultures and there differences as well in doing so it shows an Italian point of view of America. It is a great and revealing thing to see the USA from a European perspective. This jumped off the screen for me and added a deeper layer to the film
The story is indeed deeply moving and the film's cast does remarkable work in the telling of the story of repressed memory and what happens when it is awakened. Of particular note are Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Alessio Boni , and Luigi Lo Cassio (These two actors played the brothers in the incredible "The Best Of Youth" and it is a treat to see them again working together.) The film is richly presented with some wonderful cinematography. A film I highly recommend to lovers of Italian cinema.

"Don't Tell" is another "Best Foreign Language" Oscar nominee that I took a chance on solely on it's nomination. I wasn't sure what I was getting into but the film was doing alright setting up the characters and their relation to each other. There were a couple of comic-relief characters who, oddly enough, worked themselves in very well in this drama of the unspeakable. Our main character was depicted as an unflappable person who goes with the flow. In time, however, a nightmare leaves her vulnerable and uncertain. An interesting aspect of this film is who nearly everyone has issues with anxieties and self-esteem.

The only way for our heroine to deal with her fears and clouded memories were to visit her one soul-mate in the nightmare; her brother in America. This enables the plot to thicken and for her friends back home to develop their own subplots. The reliving of the past was both tramatic and theraputic for the siblings and the manner in which they reluctantly revealed their memories was well done, I thought. In fact, I kept thinking how the direstor, Cristina Comencina, was giving us the reactions rather than the actions. It minimized the suspense and brutality but it gave us a look at the real tragedy of such abominations. There was a lot of brokenness at the end but also enough support to leave us with hope.

A beautful young woman, actress by profession, is taking care of the final burial arrangements for her parents. The shock of their death only 2 years apart of each other and the fact that they both died of the same illness is haunting her. She becomes restless and unable to function normally. She is paralyzed by nightmares and her best friend (who is blind an in love with her) is unable to help her with her emotional turmoil. It is at that moment she decides to go to he US where her older borther teaches Italian literature at the university in Virginia. She soon learns she is pregnant by her handsome boyfriend actor and the strain from all these changes in her life propell her to talk to her brother in search of answers.

It is her visit to the US that helps her bond with her brother who is otherwise unable to connect emotionally even with the members of his family. His wife Anna is understanding and supportuve, but it seems that silent forces are causing their frequent arguments, they are unable to hide even from people and children around them. It is at this moment that both brother and sister have to accept the pain of their childhood sexual abuse by their father. On pretense that they are family, their mother was ignoring the abuse trying to protect their seemingly perfect family appearances.

The power of sexual abouse and the mark it leaves on one's life is as traumatic for the participant and emotionally troubling for the outsider. This film addresses the need of childhood abuse survivors to overcome their own guilt and anger and regain ability to establish normacy in their own lives and relationships. It is a daunting task for both victims and people in their lives, but it is fight worth fighting for. The classincal beauty of the leading actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno is mesmerizing. She is so beuatiful that even her best childhood friend in this movie, who is blind, is helplessly in love with her.

This film really brought up a lot for me, emotionally. I loved it, and when it was over I wanted to see it again.
Fine acting, great directing, though one wouldn't, on the surface, see it as a "great" film because, to some degree, it has perhaps too much of a psychological agenda to be a full-out "art" film . All I know is, it touched me in a major way. It's the story evil people in the lives of two children, now adults. Who doesn't have someone like that, from the past? In this case it is very damaging to the victims but - the "up" side of the story is that in their present lives they are surrounded by people who love them, care for them, empathize with and want to protect them and help them, including each other. So, as it is remarked upon at the end of the film, though we cannot get back the children we were, and we must forget the bad things that happened to us in the past, at least we can heal and live fairly optimistic lives with the people who love us now. A "happy" ending made me cry, and I also wept copiously throughout the whole film.

This award winning Italian film tackles a difficult issue in a subdued but dignified manner with great acting along the way. The title, "Don't Tell," sums up the main question behind the film. When should you tell about deep secrets?

The film's answer appears to be always. Sabrina's problems come from covering up her childhood suffering caused by her fathers' sexual abuse of her as a child. Will she ruin her retationship with the famous actor who loves her so? Of course he did cheat on her when she was with her brother in the states but he does not think it important.

Relationships are very fragile in this drama which easity could have degenerated into a melodrama but the fine film avoids that danger and delivers a subtle but nevertheless real emotional impact.

I always thought that while movies about incest were shocking in, say, 1975, that path had been well-worn. Not to say that I'm only looking for shock in movies, but I found this renouned drama to be rather flat and bloodless. Sure the acting is good, but the script is rather pedestrian, the characters uninteresting, and after the end we don't get a sense that much has changed. And it's all told so slowly, with lots of portentious flashbacks (it reminded me in that regard of Barbra Streisand's Nuts, another overpraised film) as though there's this great profundity when in fact there's nothing but banality. I was waiting for the twist, the surprising insight, but it never came. The video box is plastered with awards and nominations, but compared to the ground-breaking Italian cinema of Fellini and De Sica and other, lesser names, this is banal television. Can't say I'd recommend this, unless you're looking for something light. Yes, light. It seems odd to describe a movie about incest that way, but 2007 isn't 1975.

Or something like that. It seems that this is perhaps the central theme of this beautifully directed Italian drama.

A woman is troubled by a dream of being molested by her father, and is afraid she has awakened a memory that she has repressed for years, so she goes to America to visit her estranged brother and his family and try to talk about the sensitive subject matter and address issues that might be troubling her.

Don't Tell covers the delicate ground of child molestation and how, as adults, the victims try to deal with the painful memories. It also covers other very emotional territory, like the cheating nature of men (every man in the film at some point cheats on his lover, leaves her, talks about having done so, etc.) I don't know if that part of the story is in the original novel, or if it was added because the film was directed by a woman. Either way, it feeds the relationship doubt that women already have.

Don't Tell is a very moving and superbly acted film. There is not a lot of action, but the intensity of the story carries the movie along, until the end when a strange montage on a train really detracts from the ultimate impact of the movie, and seems like it will leave most viewers, myself included, simply feeling confused.

It's definitely clear why this film was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2005 Academy Awards, and if you're in to troubling dramatic films, this is definitely one to check out.

The writing and directing were fantastic, and Ms. Comencini was able to get wonderful, moving performances from everyone in the film. Highly recommended.

Reverently directed by Cristina Commencini, seriously acted by the sublime Giovanna Mezzogiorno ("Facing Windows"), "Don't Tell" ("La Bestia Nel Cuore") fails to make much of an emotional impact despite its central theme of child abuse.
Sabina (Mezzogiorno) has a happy marriage but disturbing dreams are troubling her and these dreams drive her to the US to visit her brother, Daniele (Luigi Lo Cascio) to sort things out, get some answers and hopefully find peace.
The problem here is that this highly charged story is directed and played with so much objectivity that it is sapped of most of its emotionality and psychic effect which is a shame because Mezzogiorno has several deeply felt and humane scenes. Director Commencini, in her quest to present the facts, forgets that this is a drama and that the facts have to be fashioned and re-worked in order to play effectively on the screen
But drained of its blood and lacking the guts to tell this story with the necessary boldness, "Don't Tell" is ultimately a disappointing waste of talent.