Italy's 2025 Oscar Entry Is an Alpine Wonder of Beauty and Empathy

vermilion
is one of those great films that is difficult to fully capture in writing, because it is and does so many things. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2024 Venice Film Festival (essentially second place) and is gaining momentum as Italy's Oscar submission paints a picture. It's an independent box office success in its own country, which paints another picture. It is artistic, atmospheric and observant; a film about life told in hushed tones. It is dedicated to recreating a specific time and place and placing ourselves in it. There's a smooth stability to the way he moves.

It's also a family comedy-drama, well-plotted and equal parts moving and funny. While the film never needs to raise its voice, it is not passive; when studying the character, he also builds the narrative. Its themes are many and, in some way, they all seem fully explored, but to call it multifaceted would be to belie its totality. vermilion it achieves a kind of cohesion that I can only explain by waving my hands and invoking the magic of cinema.

Vermiglio is a portrait of a time, a place and a family

With romance as the main theme of the story

The main grace of Vermiglio, and its most immediately striking characteristic is its specificity. Its name comes from a remote village in the northern mountainous region of Trentino-Alto Adige, and although it is largely Italian, the rest of the world seems miles away. The dialogue is almost entirely in the local dialect (the film is shown with subtitles in Italian cinemas), and director and screenwriter Maura Delpero is very attuned to the rhythms of everyday life here. We developed a sense of this place very quicklyand with each step forward, our understanding deepens.

Although Vermiglio may seem like a village out of time, the film is crucially set in 1944; Among the film's many identities is a war film without battles. The story revolves around a particular family after two deserting soldiers arrive on their doorstep. One is a relative, nephew of Cesare (Tommaso Ragno), our patriarch and village teacher. The other, Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), is Sicilian, which means he could very well be from another planet. He is quiet but seems kind, and quickly catches the eye of Cesare's eldest daughter, Lucia (Martina Scrinzi).

Their romance is the most prominent story threadbut the rest of the family is also under the camera's watchful eye. Sometimes we're watching them individually – Ada (Rachele Potrich), the middle of three sisters, is at once the most obedient and the most pious. But she has discovered desire and self-pleasure, and as much as she wants to remain well-behaved, she finds it extremely difficult to resist. Her journey through this struggle, which involves monastic acts of penance that she regards herself as (ineffective) deterrents, is captivatingly funny.

Sometimes we are observing their dynamics as a collective. The bond between sisters, who share a room and get together to whisper every night. Cesare's preference for Flavia (Anna Thaler), his youngest and smart daughter, who he wants to send to continue her studies, instead of Ada, who really wants that. Little Pietrin (Enrico Panizza) and his adoration for his older brother, Dino (Patrick Gardner), who is eternally at odds with his father. The constant pregnancy of the mother, Adele (Roberta Rovelli), at a time when not all babies survive, and how everyone processes this proximity of life and death.

Vermiglio's beautiful images are fueled by empathy

Which goes back to the genesis of the film

Every scene in vermilion seems to serve several purposes, and I could spend this entire review untangling them, examining the feelings and ideas captured in each. But the effect of the whole is that you feel like you are actually seeing lives being lived. Films are, by nature, selective, and the experiences of women in this restricted era are the focus of Delpero's selections. But it's clear that everyone in front of the camera is someone she finds interesting.

After seeing it for the first time, in Venice, this feeling was what struck me most. vermilion is one of the most beautiful films of the year, and cinematographer Mikhail Krichman uses light in a way that gives the images a velvety softness. Despite the film being exceptionally snowy – consider it in the canon of great winter atmospheres – His gaze is warm. The camera is unfailingly honest about what it sees, yet lovingly conveys that truth to us.

I noticed this especially in the way we came to understand Cesare. As the main instrument of patriarchal will, he is the target of much criticism, often guilty of centering himself at the expense of his loved ones. Delpero gives voice to the complaints of his wife and children and shows us that they are deserved. But vermilion he also approaches it with great empathy, and not just because of the depth of feeling in Ragno's stoic performance. The film shows his beliefs and ambitions. He is also irritated by the smallness of his life.

When I learned later that Delpero founded this family on her own, I understood. vermilion was born from the exercise of imagining his father's life as a child, as a way of processing his pain over his death, and the emotion that brought her to the film remained with him. How, exactly, I cannot say; I wonder if Delpero herself could define this. But whatever went into the alchemy of his process, the resulting art leaves a lasting impression.

vermilion opens in US theaters on Wednesday, December 25th. The film is 119 minutes long and has not yet been rated.