A director, on her debut: 'I wanted to show women who did not make history'

Paola Cortellesi, who made the movie, There is Still Tomorrow, which had its world premiere at the Haifa International Film Festival last week, looks glamorous and poised, but is still a little new to the whole business of being a director.

A popular Italian actress and singer who is best known for comedy and who has written a number of her films, she teared up when There is Still Tomorrow received a standing ovation from the usually jaded film festival crowd. As I tell her how much I enjoyed her moving, inventive, and beautifully acted drama about a working-class housewife in post-World War II Rome, she glowed as like a first-year film student.

Some of the details and the atmosphere of the film will be familiar to readers of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet novels, but the heroine of There is Still Tomorrow faces an even more limited and oppressive daily life, and somehow manages to nurture her humanity in spite of these challenges.

Cortellesi stars as Delia, who is married to Ivano (Valerio Vastandrea), a violent and petty man, who takes out his frustrations physically against Delia. Delia cooks, cleans, raises their children, cares for Ivano’s irascible father, and even manages, through great skill and ingenuity, to earn money here and there.

Their oldest daughter, Marcella (Romana Maggoria Vergano), didn’t go to high school, although she is bright and ambitious, because Ivano refused to pay the fees. Now Marcella has a boyfriend, who is impressive by the neighborhood’s standards because his family owns a bar, but Delia is concerned that Marcella’s young man may turn out to be as abusive as Ivano, and eventually takes extreme measures to protect her daughter. 

A backdrop of a changing Italy

The story plays out against a backdrop of a changing Italy following the war, where some centuries-old traditions were shaken up, and is set just before Italian women got the right to vote in 1945. 

There are a number of stylishly filmed and very original sequences, where music and dance are used to give a strangely comic tone to the abuse Delia suffers from her husband, and which hint at why she once loved him. These scenes also take the edge off of what could have been a grim movie to sit through, and illustrate Delia’s playful spirit, which has not been dulled by her hard life. 

Cortellesi said that the character of Delia was inspired by stories she heard from her grandmother and great-grandmother about women of that generation. “In that era, there were some women who were famous and politically active. But I wanted to talk in the movie about women who did not make history, like my great-grandmother. They were strong, but my great-grandmother said, ‘What do I understand? What do I know?’ The truth is, she did know so much, she raised children and they all studied hard. 

“I wanted to talk about someone like her – although this isn’t her story – but I wanted to talk about someone who is not a rebel, who accepts the life that she has. Your father would give you a husband. He would choose him and you just had to hope that this was a good husband. It was never about love. And the women had to find a way to live with these men.”

She said that Delia “doesn’t think she is anything special, doesn’t think she is intelligent, even though she is able to do so many things, is capable in so many ways. It’s funny in a way when we see her doing so many things so well, but no one thinks of her as a special person.” 

Although times have changed and there are more opportunities for women today, Cortellesi said, “Even now, many women, often we don’t know how strong we are. We think that all the millions of things we do every day, we think it’s something that is naturally what we do, and we don’t consider ourselves anything special.”

Speaking about the black humor in the movie, Cortellesi said, “I wanted to do a drama, but the ironic part came out when I was writing. The best way to share heavy subjects with people is through humor, in an ironic way... And I hope that the audiences will laugh at times and cry at times.”