I am Love is a quiet film, in which Tilda Swinton's facial expressions nearly seem to advance the plot. Watching her here, I marvelled at her ability to do so much with so little (see also: Young Adam, We Need to Talk About Kevin). During the film’s opening dinner party scene, the viewer understands quickly that her need for escape has been present, if dormant, for a long time.
By the film’s conclusion, once her secret has been exposed, the matriarch returns to the family home, now cast in daylight. The regal dress she wore the night before is stained with sweat, a sign of her flaws, stress, constriction.
The film has the rich look of a period film, not only on the surfaces of the sets and costumes, but also buried in the mannered behaviour and speech of the characters - throwback qualities that are tragically out of step with the modern world.
The story of a forbidden love affair and inevitable consequence is a common one. Watching it, I thought of how sexual transgressions in films often come to a violent end (Damage comes to mind).
But I am Love does something quite unique in making food a key component to the development and demise of this particular affair 1) first, to draw Swinton's character into the transgression and 2) to act as the final element in that secret's revelation to her family.
