Quiet Chaos - film review
Beautifully understated exploration of one individual's approach to coping with grief.
Pietro returns to his holiday villa after an eventful day at the beach with his brother to find the emergency services in attendance at the body of his wife who has fallen to her death in unexplained circumstances.
Left alone to care for his young daughter Claudia, Pietro soon finds himself distracted from the pressing needs of daily life, and instead opts to spend his days waiting in the park outside his daughter's school in between dropping her off in the morning and collecting her at the end of the day. From his park bench Pietro is (perhaps surprisingly) able successfully to conduct his business as a senior executive in a tv company - taking calls from his secretary, and meeting occasionally with his colleagues, busy intriguing against one another whilst a merger with a foreign rival progresses.
In the aftermath of her death, Pietro discovers some hitherto hidden aspects of his wife's life - secret email correspondence with a children's author in Rome, an appointment with a plastic surgeon, trips to a fortune-teller. As Pietro assimilates these disparate items, he begins to wonder how well he knew his wife, prompting the viewer to ponder how well any of us can know another person.
Meanwhile back in the park, Pietro begins to relate to the passers-by whose daily life intersects with his own - a woman walking her dog, a carer with her charge, other parents at the school gate, and Claudia's teacher, played by the wonderful Antonella Attili.
Pietro's undemonstrative conduct and acceptance of events gradually transform the opinions of his close friends and family, whose initial concern at his predicament metamorphoses into an understanding of his choice to conduct life with quiet dignity in the face of a tragic loss.
Essential viewing.