In Primavera, Tecla Insolia plays Cecilia, a 20-year-old orphan who has lived all of her life in Ospedale della Pietá, the biggest orphanage in Venice. The latter houses many girls and young women who get to study music as they grow up in the orphanage, under the watchful eye of the Prioress, played by Fabrizia Sacchi, and rarely leaving the Pietá walls. The only women who get to leave are the ones who are chosen to get married to rich men and patrons of the orphanage, but once they do, they have to stop playing forever.
This is particularly hard to access for Cecilia, who is an incredibly talented violinist, which becomes increasingly clear when the new violin teacher, Antonio Vivaldi (Michele Rondino), chooses her to be the lead violinist in the orphanage orchestra.
Sacchi and Insolia are both brilliant in their respective roles. Despite being significantly different parts, they are the standouts of the movie as two very different woman who each forge their own path as the story continues. Moreover, Sacchi and Insolia are especially impressive opposite each other: their relationship in the film creates tension every time they are on screen together, and the actresses portray this excellently. And yet, despite being opposite and opposed to each other, the viewers end up understanding the perspective of each woman by the time the movie ends.
The atmosphere of the film is also portrayed really well. The audience can see director Damiano Michieletto’s previous work on stage, especially in operas, in many scenes in the film, especially in the way music is portrayed. In the scenes where we see the character play, music itself almost becomes a character, one that does not need to be overexplained or filled with text but is just left to shine on its own. The group sequences also show the influence of theatre in the way the young women move together, almost as a choreography, and the big scenes are always filled with detail and movement, making them feel authentic.
Unfortunately, Primavera has very little to say about Vivaldi or his music at all. For playing such a pivotal role in the plot, the audience learns virtually nothing about Vivaldi himself, if not for a small element of his backstory. There is nothing about his passion for music or his inspiration to write it, and having the orphans perform it in various settings. The viewers also hear surprisingly little music from the composer, especially considering that this is a film about music at its core. We barely hear some of the motifs of Spring from the Four Seasons, and only a small part of one of the concertos that Vivaldi composed. This inevitably feels like a missed opportunity to showcase the brilliant work of the most famous representatives of Baroque music.
While the story it tells is fascinating, the film could have also focused a little bit more on its historical context. The movie is set in the early 18th century, and this is brilliantly conveyed through the aesthetics and costumes, but not so much in the actual story. The characters keep alluding to a war that is happening, so much so that it becomes quite an important plot point for Cecilia, but it never really goes beyond that, leaving us wondering what exactly this war might have involved and how much it affected the characters and Venice as a whole. Naturally, this is reflective of the closed nature of the orphanage and of the girls’ lives, but I could not help but feel that some elements of context were missing.
Overall, Primavera is an interesting story told through beautiful frames and excellent acting. There are admittedly some missed opportunities throughout the movie, particularly to showcase Vivaldi’s music and delve deeper into the larger historical context in which Cecilia lives. Despite these elements that could have been further explored, it is still very much a film worth seeing and an original story that is very different from the type of films we are used to seeing on the screen lately.
★★★
In UK cinemas now / Tecla Insolia, Michele Riondino, Fabrizia Sacchi / Dir: Damiano Michieletto / Curzon Film / 15
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