BONES AND ALL
Usa/Italy, 2022, Director: Luca Guadagnino – With: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Harper, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz – Running time: 130’
Luca Guadagnino travels to Ohio to tell a story about love, cannibalism and character at the edge of society. «It’s a very romantic story about the impossibility of love and on the other hand about its being necessary even in extreme circumstances», the director says about his road movie. Taylor Russell is Maren, a woman left alone who tries to understand herself. Timothée Chalamet is Lee, a tramp with no rights but a fighting attitude. These two young persons travel for a thousand miles through secondary roads and hidden passages of the United States during the Reagan Age. Despite their efforts, they constantly return to their terrifying past and chilling nature.
Bones and All is based upon the homonymous disturbing novel by Camille DeAngelis, who also wrote the screenplay with David Kajganich, who worked with Guadagnino in Suspiria (2018) and A Bigger Splash (2015). The director was immediately impressed by the story, and Chalamet and Russell were his first thought for the roles. «They both have the power to give back universal feelings». Michael Stuhlbarg plays a character that «will drive the audience to the edge». Guadagnino watches his protagonists while they express themselves and their own truth through their actions, even in the most negative ways. «There’s something that fascinates me in those living on the fringe of society. I love these characters», the director says. Maren and Lee travel to discover the truth about themselves and the horrible acts they made, looking for a place in the world that does not tolerate their nature. «The heart of this movie beats tenderly and kindly for them. I’m interested in their emotional travels. I want to discover where there are chances for them that are trapped by the inability they are facing». Bones and All is «a reflection about who you are and how you overcome your feelings, especially if there’s something inside you that you can’t control».
