Love Is Eternal While It Lasts

Carlo Verdone continues to use his proverbial melancholy comedy to tell a story whose main theme is the feeling that has always moved the world: Love.

Verdone tells of an apparently happy and serene middle-class family that conceals profound hardships. He plays Gilberto Mercuri who is a renowned middle-aged optician and married to Tiziana (Laura Morante), a famous psychologist. The two have a teenage daughter named Marta (Lucia Ceracchi), who is afflicted against her will by a profound existential unease.

Carlo Verdone is sublime in embodying the classic man who, having reached the age of fifty, begins to look around and question himself again. Morante is impeccable in placing herself in the shoes of an apparently self-confident woman who in reality hides neurosis and instability. Stefania Rocca for her part is irresistible in interpreting a free and instinctive young woman who lives life day by day. The evergreen Antonio Catania is apt in the role of a timid and superficial individual who is unable to take responsibility. The cast is completed by talented actors such as Rodolfo Corsato and Gabriella Pession.

Verdone, assisted in writing by Francesca Marciano and Pasquale Plastino, admirably manages to combine comedy and drama, offering the viewer a faithful portrait of today's society. "Love is eternal while it lasts" exalts human frailties and invites us to show them; pertinent in this regard is the following aphorism of the famous writer Alessandro D'Avenia: "The art to learn in this life is not that of being invincible and perfect, but that of knowing how to be as one is, invincibly fragile and imperfect".

Verdone does not condemn the characters in the story but redeems them because, while making mistakes, each of them is fighting a personal battle that deserves respect and indulgence. Love is eternal while it lasts it also shows the viewer that often what we seek is within our reach and we don't even realise it.