Pperfect illusion – broadcast tonight on first TV at 9.30pm on Rai 3 – is the last film directed by Pappi Corsicato. Released in 2022, he says the story of a dangerous love triangle that will change the lives of three people forever. The protagonists are some of the most promising emerging actors of Italian cinema: Giuseppe Maggio, Carolina Sala and actress, director and singer Margherita Vicario.
Perfect illusion: the plot of Pappi Corsicato’s film tonight 9 January on Rai 3 and RaiPlay
Toni (Maggio) is thirty years old and has an apparently stable life with his wife Paola (Vicar), made up of work, affection and shared routines. Despite sincere love, Toni feels she has put aside her true desire: to become an artist. The meeting with Chiara (Sala), a rich young Milanese woman and restless, opens a crack in his daily life. In fact, the girl lives in a free and creative world that fascinates Toni and awakens dreams that have never faded. A profound understanding is born between the twomade up more of looks and words than gestures but that then, inevitably, it turns into passion.
Pushed by Chiara, budding gellerista, Toni starts painting again and to believe in himself but this new impetus slowly distances him from Paola. The wife senses the change and questions the meaning of the sacrifices made together when the two women, Paola and Chiara, meet, tensions explode. The love triangle exposes fragility and repressed desires: Chiara fears she is just an escape route while Paola fights not to lose her identity beyond marriage.
Toni finds himself torn between responsibility and personal redemption and every choice seems to involve a loss. Especially when love is intertwined with ambition and the fear of failure.
Giuseppe Maggio and Carolina Sala in a scene from “Perfect Illusion”. (Europictures)
An intense melodrama with an ending that invites reflection
Return to film direction by Pappi Corsicato ten years later The face of another, Perfect illusion And a story that contains within it the entire authorial corpus of the filmmaker Neapolitan. Corsicato in fact crosses the melody genre from an unusual perspective and thinks again about desireproving to be once again a free and unconventional director of contemporary Italian cinema.
In a plot that stages the dualism between reality and illusionthe film moves on realistic tracks, avoiding easy melodramatic excesses. The love triangle also becomes an excuse to reflect on choices, renunciations and identities with a direction that favors a slow, at times contemplative pace. Choice that strengthens the intimacy of the story but at times slows down its tensionwhile not compromising the good final result.
With a script that works by subtractionrelying on silences and minimal gestures, Perfect illusion also questions the “myth of change” despite some narrative points being predictable but consistent with the realistic structure. A work that requires attention and patience, the film therefore balances sentimental drama and reflection existential. With an endingin style Match Points by Woody Allen, which refuses any consolatory solutionunderlining as he points out every adult choice involves a cost. Which doesn’t always coincide with happiness.
The cast: from Giuseppe Maggio to Margherita Vicario
Young Roman actor born in 1992, Giuseppe Maggio He made his film debut in 2009 with Love 14 directed by Federico Moccia. In the following years, is divided between cinemas (he is the protagonist of the teen cult On the most beautiful) and TV where, in 2018 he gets an important role in the series Baby. Married to the writer Susanna Mazzoncini, Giuseppe recently appeared in the Netflix series Mrs. Playmen where he plays a homosexual photographer trying to break through.
Competing for the handsome Giuseppe in Perfect illusion Margherita Vicario and Carolina Sala. Actress but also successful singer, Margherita recently made her directorial debut with the film Glory!. Story set in an 18th century women’s institute where a group of repressed young musicians discover an act of rebellion in music and collective freedom. A film that won over audiences and critics as well as 3 David di Donatello for Best Directorial Debut, Best Composer and Best Original Song.
Carola Sala, on the other hand, is a very young actress who, in 2022, appeared in the role of young Rita Levi-Montalcini in the TV movie of the same name. In the same year he got another prominent role as the protagonist of the series Fidelity on Netflix. Recently it is returned to the cinema with The infinitedebut film by Umberto Contarello, Paolo Sorrentino’s historic screenwriter.