Stencrypted by Silvia Di GregorioBex Gunther And Denise Santoro (emerging authors) together with Veronica Galli And Thomas Triolo, love club is a new Lgbtqi+ themed TV series available on Prime Video. It tells four stories that gravitate around a Milanese club frequented by the queer community. Around the Love Club the life of Luz, Tim, Rose and Zhang: four characters who measure themselves with their own inclinations, fragility, loves, dreams and fears.
love club: the plot
The structure of the series is analogical: four episodes divided by character. In the first we discover the history of light (Veronica Charlotte). She is the owner of the place. She is the daughter of a wealthy Milanese family in love with Robertaone of the many aspects of his life that his family, especially his mother, does not share.
In the second episode Timothy (Rodrigo Robbiati) works as a DJ at the Love Club. Son of immigrants, he would like to dedicate his visit to music, but he has to work in the family pizzeria. He lives with a mental disorder and has various difficulties in relating to others. Including the last love, David (Peter Turanoalready seen in Skam, LGBTQ+ activist spokesperson for Gay Centerthe association that manages the RefugeLgbt family home,) will lead him to look at life from another perspective.
Esther Pantanoprotagonist of the third episode, is Rose. From Sicily she moved to Milan, where does the cam girl, also to help his distant grandfather. But she loves to sing and has a beautiful voice. But she doesn’t have the courage to face the Love club stage. Will she make it?
Ester Pantano is Rose, a young Sicilian who moves to Milan. She is a “cam girl” but she dreams of singing. (First Videos)
Finally, the fourth story, perhaps the most interesting, poignant and well interpreted by the protagonist, is that of Zhang (Alessio Lu). He, Chinese, is a marketing genius, who dreams of performing as a drag queen at the Love Club. Dropping his jacket and tie, he begins rehearsals, but is faced with the opposite opinion of a violent companion who humiliates him. Very good Alessio Lu, “the actor by chance” (as he defines himself on Instagram) who plays Zhang.
Alessio Lu is Zhang, a marketing whiz who dreams of being a drag queen. (First Videos)
love club: the cast and the review
love club arrives on Prime video during LGBT Pride Month. “The thing we wanted to do with this series was to tell about lives that don’t begin and don’t end with the coming outbut they are made up of everyday life, work problems, everyday difficulties that contribute in some way to building our identity», said Veronica Galli, author. The cast is made up of young actors selected by the community.
Pietro Turano (David) and Rodrigo Robbiati (Tim) are the protagonists of the second episode, (Prime Video).
Veronica Charlotte photographer, activist artist and responsible for the interesting photographic project Gender Projecton gender identity is Luz. In the second there is Rodrigo Robbiatianother non-professional actor who plays Tim, an aspiring DJ. The protagonist of the third episode is Ester Pantano, already seen in other TV series (Imma Tataranni). Alessio Lu (Zhang) is the revelation of the series, a non-professional actor.
It was an experience I didn’t expect,” said Alessio Lu. «It can also be said that it fell a little from the sky. However, faced with this opportunity to give a voice that is often taboo, I didn’t feel like backing down. For me it was really important to go ahead and make this choice».
And he added: “I’m not an actor. This was absolutely my first experience. But I accepted. love club it was therapeutic for me. I’m a rather shy person, but thanks to the film I discovered the courage and got rid of the shame a little. I understood that the shame I felt was not mine but the one I was taught. And that people’s judgments were often taught judgments. So, it is important to create another version, another truth, another reality so that these judgments are dismantled and the shame disappears».
The series promises to go beyond stereotypes but misses the mark. The stories are rather mundane, with predictable scenes against a rhythmic musical background (with “inevitable” opera arias) and plays of light. Some characters, first of all the DJ Tim, described in a superficial way (Tim has a psychiatric problem, but it is not clear what it is).
Each story, squeeze squeeze, flies just above the triviality, especially in the first episode, the worst. The queer world seems closed in on itself, as if it were addressing a community living on an island. Finally, the erotic scenes placed here and there are not enough to make the product intriguing. The intent of the series is appreciable, the result is just enough (to be generous).
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