Cuore Sacro (Sacred Heart)

Between La Finestra di Fronte and Saturno Contro, Ferzan Ozpetek directed and wrote this movie that is totally mesmerizing because an outstanding performance by beautiful Barbora Bobulova that plays Irene, a heartless businesswoman that is forced to re-evaluate her life and priorities after the suicide of her two best friends. Consequently we are allowed to see a journey of darkness, regret and redemption.

The story is social relevant, strong and disturbing even if near the end it becomes for a moment unbelievable, it flows again with a very surprising ending that allows to understand the power of the hidden heart, the phantom second heart, the sacred heart.

This loosely translated quote gives an idea of the reason why for the title and the essence of the movie: “Your mother always used to say that each of us has two hearts but one of them eclipses the other. If each of us could spot, even for a brief moment, the light of this hidden heart, then we will understand that that one is a sacred heart. And we couldn't give up the warmth of its light.”

But what is truly outstanding is Bobulova’s performance that is in almost all scenes and she has an incredible face and a body language that tells everything that’s going within her and around her. For this role she won the 2005 David di Donatello award for Best Actress and for what I saw in this movie, she truly deserved this award.

In total this movie had 5 awards and 14 nominations most of them to Bulova and to Ozpetek for his screenplay.

This is a movie that I recommend as a showcase of an amazing performance by an actress and there are not many movies that a performance by an actor/actress surpasses the director, the screenplay and all the technical aspects involved in a movie, but this one truly does.

Still Ozpetek is an incredible writer and director and now I am looking forward to be able to see his 2001 Le Fate Ignoranti (His Secret Life).