“After all, tomorrow is another day!” This is one of the most famous sentences in film history. They are Scarlett O’Hara’s final words in “Gone With the Wind” with which she expresses her hope of recapturing renegade husband Rhett Butler – who, no small detail, raped her; The much-discussed “staircase scene” can hardly be read any other way, especially not from today’s perspective.
The Italian filmmaker Paola Cortellesi titled her spectacular directorial debut about patriarchy and its destructive implications for everything interpersonal with almost the same sentence, but reinterpreted it in a feminist way. In her drama, which takes place in Rome in 1946, the sentence also stands for the female protagonist’s hope for change and for the future.
Director Paola Cortellesi also plays the main character
However, the hope here does not lie in the pursuit of individual happiness and certainly not in achieving it through the amorous conquest of a man. Rather, the film focuses on the deeply internalized patriarchal structures as a collective, social and political question. It is not for nothing that the main character, played by Paola Cortellesi herself, repeatedly runs along a wall on which “Long live the Republic!” has been painted – 1946 was the year in which the Republic was proclaimed in Italy.
“Tomorrow is another day” tells the story of Delia (Paola Cortellesi), who lives in poor conditions with her husband, three children and father-in-law. To call their marriage loveless would be an understatement. Ivano keeps Delia small wherever he can. He beats her brutally, takes the money she has earned and never misses an opportunity to verbally and physically verbally and physically demonstrate his superiority, which is also enshrined in law. Delia endures her ordeal stoically. She is capable and warm-hearted and quite resourceful within the narrow possibilities of her oppressed existence.
Humor, singing and dancing
This life story could easily have descended into melodramatic pathos if Cortellesi hadn’t approached the material in such an unusual way: with humor, song and dance. This may sound cynical given what the female main character is going through, but the implementation is impressive due to its sensitivity, at least almost always. When, for example, a brutal beating scene mutates into a dance scene, it’s not about trivializing the violence, but about letting the past, what once connected Delia and her husband, run its course.
Cortellesi cleverly plays with a wide variety of narrative strategies. The influence of the dramas of Italian neorealism can be clearly seen, for example in the design of costumes, colors and settings, but also in the content orientation towards everyday stories, the fight for daily survival and the milieu of the “little people”. Then there is a scene that almost looks like it is on a theater stage: the chamber play-like depiction of a meal that grates on the nerves.
A hit with audiences in Italy
The directorial ingenuity is enormous. But also the anger about the circumstances. The film counters these conditions with confidence in the form of community and civic spirit and, around Delia, draws the solid network of a post-war society that is connected in a system of give and take, but also partly in real solidarity. It also becomes clear that the class boundaries are clearly drawn. However, those between the sexes are even more insurmountable.
The debate that “Tomorrow is Another Day” addresses is by no means over, even almost 80 years after the film was set in time. The film, which was excellently acted in all parts and had a rousing soundtrack, caused a sensation in Italy. Since its theatrical release in October 2023, it has become a hit with audiences and has already brought Paola Cortellesi many awards. At demonstrations denouncing violence against women, people hold up signs with movie quotes from “Tomorrow will be another day.”
It is precisely the history of patriarchal oppression that has continued over generations that makes “Tomorrow is Another Day” so heartbreaking. Based on the relationship between Delia and her teenage daughter Marcella (Romana Maggiora Vergano), it is precisely told how they are each other’s reflection, but also motivation. The interim prospect that there could be a better life plan for Marcella than being the docile “possession” of a man is dashed for the time being. But that doesn’t mean there’s no hope: after all, tomorrow is still another day. (KNA)
Tomorrow is another day, directed by Paola Cortellesi, Italy 2023, 119 minutes.