Me & You

Fourteen-year-old Lorenzo tells his family he is going on a ski trip and hides in the basement of their building. He plans to live there for a week without speaking to anyone. What ruins the plan is Olivia, his half-sister from his father's earlier marriage, who is trying to get clean and takes shelter in the same basement. Bernardo Bertolucci directed, from Niccolo Ammaniti's short novel. Jacopo Olmo Antinori plays Lorenzo, Tea Falco plays Olivia. It is Bertolucci's last film. He was confined to a wheelchair by then and directed the whole shoot from it; the film staying almost entirely in one location has to do with that condition too. The story is limited to two characters and the basement never opens onto the outside. The camera works in a narrow space with a single source of light. The subject is escape: one from the world, the other from herself. Neither heals the other, they simply tolerate each other for a while. It screened at Cannes. Who it is for: viewers who like two-character chamber films and are curious about late Bertolucci. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a broad narrative; this is small and enclosed.