L’immensità: The Vast Solidarity and Liberation of Women Breaking the Boundaries of Silence

We all live within our own private prisons. Sometimes it is the fence labeled ‘family,’ and other times it is the rigid wall of ‘gender’ prescribed by society. In 1970s Rome, under the brilliant sun, when two isolated souls become mirrors reflecting one another, the love that blooms in that crevice becomes as vast as the universe itself.

[L’immensità] Production Information

💭 The Psychological Orbits of Clara and Adri Resonating within the Gravity of Misfortune

The key to an interpretation of L’immensità lies in the communion between two women who have each become ‘outsiders’ in different ways within the fortress of patriarchy. The mother, Clara, is a figure who endures a suffocating daily life—marked by her husband’s violence and infidelity—through magical fantasies.

Her child, Adri (born Adriana, identifying as Andrea), rejects the framework of being biologically female and pushes themselves beyond the boundary. Clara accepts the child’s identity not as an error to be corrected, but as a territory of freedom in which they can drift together.

✨ The two erase the squalor of reality by holding hands under the dining table or frantically mimicking musical scenes on the television. The unconventional maternal love Clara displays is not mere sacrifice; it is closer to a camaraderie that recognizes the solitude of Adri, a kindred spirit.

🧊 The Shared Isolation of Clara and Adriana, and the Self Beyond the Mirror

In the film, the act of Clara lifting the tablecloth and crawling into the children’s world serves as a ritual of shedding her social mask. The relationship between Clara and Adriana is finalized as they gaze upon each other’s deficiencies.

Instead of confronting the oppressive father, Adri discovers the ‘liberated self’ they wish to attain through the free movements of Clara’s dancing. The tension between the two characters transcends the standardized roles of mother and daughter, functioning as each other’s sole witness to their existence.

💔 Adri’s remark, “People stare because Mom is too beautiful,” is a poignant confession from a child wishing to rescue a mother trapped by the gaze of others, and simultaneously, an expression of the desire to partake in that beautiful subversiveness.

🌈 Adri and Sara: Unconditional Acceptance Found Beyond Social Boundaries

While the family unit still views Adri as an ‘object to be fixed,’ the Roma girl Sara calls them Andrea without any preconditions. The orientation of Adriana and Sara stems from a shared sense of being displaced from the order prescribed by mainstream society.

The relationship with Sara holds a significance for Adri that goes beyond a mere first love. Her weathered carriage and the open fields are a sanctuary where Adri can exist entirely as a boy. The density of emotion generated here is depicted not through words, but solely through gazes and touch, creating a unique narrative tension.

⭐ Director Emanuele Crialese suggests through their relationship that identity is not something granted by the recognition of others, but something finally named within a ‘relationship’ with someone else.

✨ Narrative Achievement and a Message for Modern Women: The Vastness of Solitude

Rather than offering a clear answer, the ending of L’immensità forces us to silently observe the trajectory of the time they have endured. Clara’s struggle to never lose her own color, even within the temporal limitations of the 1970s, resonates deeply with women today.

We are still often castrated of our own ‘vastness’ (Immensità) within the frames of being someone’s wife or someone’s mother. However, the film speaks: the moment we step out of the ‘normalcy’ defined by others, a universe opens up where we finally face our true selves.

💭 Are you perhaps confining yourself in a small room because of the gaze of others? If you have a memory of a fleeting moment, like Clara and Adri, where you were fully understood by someone and it helped you endure, please share that precious experience.

📽️ Violet Screen’s Curation: Similar Women’s Narratives

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire: An intense bond and artistic sublimation between women, completed through gaze and memory.
• Proxima: A delicate yet fierce psychological solidarity between a female astronaut and her daughter as she attempts to overcome the limits of social gender roles.