Vague Visages’ Mi fanno male i capelli review contains minor spoilers. Roberta Torre’s 2023 movie features Alba Rohrwacher, Filippo Timi and Marina Rocco. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews, along with cast/character summaries, streaming guides and complete soundtrack song listings.

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Mi fanno male i capelli, the latest feature from veteran Italian filmmaker Roberta Torre, positions the audience in a waking dream, one experienced by a woman suffering from memory loss. Alba Rohrwacher stars as Monica, who is seemingly unaware of her Korsakoff syndrome diagnosis. The protagonist walks and talks like the naive Gelsomina from Federico Fellini’s La Strada (1954), and finds happiness by recreating movie scenes — featuring the Italian cinema legend Monica Vitti — with her loving husband, Edoardo (Filippo Timi). Torre and cinematographer Stefano Salemme initially create a clear separation between reality/fantasy, and then seamlessly blend the past with the present, resulting in a unique viewing experience, certainly for lovers of classic Italian cinema.

Set primarily in or near a seaside apartment, Mi fanno male i capelli showcases Rohrwacher’s acting talent and star appeal. Tight close-ups underline the most obvious thematic aspects, as the film’s lead does indeed look like Vitti while wearing a variety of wigs and throwback outfits (shout-out to costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini). There’s not much suspense or high drama to the story (co-written by Torre and Franco Bernini), but Paola Freddi’s editing creates a pleasant viewing experience as the director stays focused on Monica’s perspective. Whereas Pietro Castellitto’s 2023 Italian film Enea (also featured at Open Roads: New Italian Cinema) struggles with its narrative flow, Mi fanno male i capelli immerses the audience into the subject’s world and subtly communicates Monica’s objective: to find herself through cinema.

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Torre succeeds with her classic cinema scene selections in Mi fanno male i capelli. The writer-director not only highlights Vitti’s most famous onscreen moments, but also incorporates sequences from La Notte (1961) and L’Eclisse (1962) featuring the legendary Italian actors Marcello Mastroianni and Alain Delon, respectively. This helps the story structure in Mi fanno male i capelli, as it allows Rohrwacher to at once react to scenes as her character while playing off her onscreen husband, who agrees to participate in a cinema-themed “game” in the present timeline. So, there’s a bittersweet quality to Mi fanno male i capelli, as it’s enjoyable to watch the female lead lose herself in a role that’s fundamentally about the mental instability of a sick yet hopeful woman.

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Mesmerizing beach scenes in Mi fanno male i capelli reinforce the central themes. As Monica, Rohrwacher glows while navigating her character’s seaside property, yet Torre continuously implies that her protagonist only sees black and white, evidenced by the recurring images of classic Italian cinema consuming her mind. Ultimately, Mi fanno male i capelli communicates an important message about the theatrical movie experience that cinephiles will appreciate: some people find inner peace through the outdoors, while others experience closure and rebirth in dark places. Torre’s joyous film shares themes with Ingmar Bergman’s Through a Glass Darkly (1961), though the writer-director infuses her 2023 tale with more color, hope and grace for the central female protagonist.

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor.

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