The Second Time

Calopresti's feature debut is a modest but intriguing study of the psychological legacy of the terrorism that beset Italy in the '70s. Set in a hauntingly gloomy Turin, the film follows the actions and emotions of Moretti, a lecturer and ex-Fiat executive, after he recognises in the street a woman sentenced to 30 years in prison for having shot him in the head some 12 years earlier. As he sets about getting to know her - she, not having recognised him, thinks he's merely trying to chat her up, and pretends she's just a normal working woman - Calopresti leaves us in the dark as to Moretti's exact intentions, so that his cool, intelligent drama also achieves a welcome level of unsettling suspense.