L’immensità by Italian director Emanuele Crialese premiered in September 2022 at the Venice film festival and was released in US theaters on May 12.
Penélope Cruz (c) Claudio Onorato
Penélope Cruz plays Clara, the Spanish mother of three children living in Rome in the 1970s, with an abusive husband who blames their family problems on the eldest child, Adriana (Luana Giuliani), a 12-year-old girl who is convinced they are a boy or possibly an alien from another galaxy.
Penelope Cruz as Clara
Cruz described the predicament of this housewife to press in Venice: “She’s not crazy at all, she has enough amount of craziness in her to survive this life that she has to live. That’s where she connects with her daughter. They feel trapped in their bodies, in their house, in their family, in their situation. Their only escape is through the television that connects them to another world, to art, to music, to dance, to dreaming.”
Several popular songs from the 1970s are recreated for the film and shot in Black and White, as they were performed on television variety shows. Color broadcasts were not authorized by state run RAI TV until Christmas 1977.
In an early scene, while setting the table for dinner, the mother leads her children in a rousing dance sequence as they sing Rumore, Raffaella Carrà 1974 hit single from her album Felicità tà tà. Read the Italian lyrics and the English translation. Watch Carrà 1979 television performance.
In a dream sequence, Adri, who prefers to be called Andrea, a male name in Italy, sees himself in the place of Adriano Celentano in a duet with Raffaella Carrà as played by Penélope Cruz, dancing and singing a non-sensical song in pretend English, Prisencolinensinainciusol. Watch the original 1974 performance.
In another fantasy Cruz in a blond wig performs as Patty Pravo, lip syncing the 1971 song Love Story. Here’s the lyrics in Italian, the English translation, and video of a live performance by Pravo.
In the final sequence we see Andrea as a young man singing full out L’immensità, the 1967 song written by Don Backy. Watch the newcomer sing it at the 1967 Sanremo Song Festival. That is, of course, the song that gives the film its title, The Immensity.
And here’s the complete soundtrack for your listening pleasure.