Alexander (Edoardo Leo) and Arturo (Stefano Accorsi) have been together for fifteen years and theirs is an important affection, but the passion has vanished and their relationship is in crisis. The unexpected arrival in their lives of the children of Annamaria (Jasmine Trinca), Alessandro's best friend and reference figure of the couple, entrusted to him while she undergoes medical checks, could give new life to their love. Or give him the coup de grace and lead him to his inevitable and painful end. Among extraordinary characters, gestures of wonderful madness and passion, Ferzan Ozpetek returns to tell the tiring search for happiness and the purity of affections.
The Goddess Fortuna has a secret, a magic trick. How do you always keep someone you love very much with you? You have to stare at him, you steal his image, you snap your eyes shut, you keep them tightly closed. And he goes down to your heart and from that moment that person will always be with you.
A pleasant return to the successes of the past that of The Goddess Fortuna, where the Turkish director traces again the poetry of the best chapters of his filmography: halfway between Le Fate Ignoranti (2001) and Saturno Contro (2007), Ozpetek draws an enlarged and colorful family universe (where the director's muse could not be missing, the very nice Serra Yilmaz), justified not by blood relations but by the strength of ties, a condominium (and here the references to The Ignorant Fairies are inevitable) which is a big house, a big heart. And then a couple, a love between two different and complementary people (Alessandro, rough but wise plumber, and Arturo, cultured translator tending to whim) in crisis for some time. And finally the illness, another narrative topos of the director, here that of Annamaria's brain, which hovers over her life of her and her loved ones, tests the affections, upsets the present and designs an uncertain future.
Ozpetek is keen to say that his latest film is a choral film, made up of characters that cannot be renounced, but at the center of this universe there is a couple unable to understand what has become of the passion they shared and what will become of their future together. The Goddess Fortuna is the story of a love that ends, or maybe it got lost among too many expectations, or it just changed shape. And perhaps it will be the appearance of these two children, certainly anomalous (Martina, extremely smart for her age, and Alessandro, gifted with extraordinary empathy) to give new life to the couple and new shape to their relationship (no longer lovers, but parents ).
The director doesn't build a story in detail, he rather lets the situations breathe and illuminate the many characters, making the film exceptionally warm and sincere. The Goddess Fortuna is nothing new nor is it distinguished from certainly better works by Ozpetek, but it is nonetheless generous in sentiment, laudable performances (with particular praise to the character of Edoardo Leo, pragmatic and rough proletarian with a father's heart) and moments enchanting: the “dance” scene in the rain, accompanied by the exotic rhythm and the voice of the Turkish singer Sezen Aksu (already present in Mine Vaganti), will remain with you well after the credits. Guaranteed.
