At the First Breath of Wind

Franco Piavoli's 2003 Italian film covers an August afternoon in the Lombardy countryside. A family sits at the table after a long meal, and then each of them drifts off to something of their own. There is no event. One sleeps, one goes out to the garden, one reads; the narrative shows these hours without shortening them and conveys the weight of the heat through sound. There is almost no dialogue. Piavoli is a director who works with images of nature and sound design; insects, wind and water are the narrative's real elements. When evening comes the film ends. Who it's for: those who like silent and observational cinema. Who it's not for: viewers expecting narrative; nothing happens across the film and no one says anything.