Le Affinita elettive
(The Elective Affinities)

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Review, by David Sterritt

Countess Charlotte and Baron Edouard, once madly in love, meet by chance twenty years after having last seen each other. They decide to marry and devote their time to their relationship and the development of their land. The couple are joined by Otto (an architect and close friend of Edouard's) along with Charlotte's goddaughter, Ottilie. After a communal reading of a treatise on 'elective affinities' - the inexplicable law that seperates paired elements and makes them change partners - the two couples experience the same results. After a passionate night between Edouard and Charlotte a child is born that mysteriously resembles Ottilie and Otto. The life and death of the child dramatically marks the parallel progression of the two love stories.

"1. We wanted to tell a love story.
"2. We tried to come close to the mysterious effects of 'Elective Affinities', in both humans and nature.
"3. We have always loved Goethe's work, in which one can find all the battles of love." - Paolo & Vittorio Taviani

Directed by: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
Written by: Paolo Taviani, Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Marie Gillain
Produced by: Grazia Volpi
Original Music by: Carlo Crivelli