Trilogies are certainly not an original idea in today’s cinema; on the contrary, in some respects, it seems to have become a real trend. So while Sofia Coppola and Gregg Araki are dealing with troubled adolescence, Gus Van Sant is already dealing with death, Lars Von Trier recalls the times of the American dream, Allen and a varied group of directors and screenwriters pay homage to the Big Apple in a single film, between Italy, China, and the U.S.A. they focus on eroticism. But rather than a trilogy, with "Eros" (2004), it is more of a triptych: three episodes directed respectively by Michelangelo Antonioni, Steven Soderbergh, and Wong Kar-Wai, connected by a common denominator, which is precisely eroticism, and by the illustrations of the famous illustrator Lorenzo Mattotti, which intersperse the three stories.

The project is ambitious and it was launched by the great Antonioni himself. The two other filmmakers took on the invitation with great enthusiasm and upon completion, “Eros” was presented out of competition at the 61st Venice Film Festival. Initially, the order of the episodes had them starting with Kar-Wai, followed by Soderbergh, and ending with Antonioni. It’s clear there was an intention to give the project’s creator and undisputed master of Italian and international cinema the place of honor, the last spot, to keep film enthusiasts eagerly curious and fully satisfied by the end. Unfortunately, the critics did not show enthusiasm for the Antonioni episode (Goodness, how bad it sounds... but Michelangiolesque I couldn’t use for obvious reasons, so I make do) and so for commercial reasons, Italy swapped places with China, as if to say “let’s get this molar over with and do it quickly.” I found it difficult to give an overall score to this work as it teeters between very high levels and mediocre ones, therefore I felt like I would either be underestimating it or praising it wrongly; after all, wouldn’t you be tired of going through them one by one?

"The Dangerous Thread of Things" - Michelangelo Antonioni. Regina Nemni and Christopher Buchholz form a couple in crisis who decide to revive their relationship through the serenity of the Tuscan coast. However, he meets a woman (Luisa Ranieri) who attracts him with the promiscuous casualness of her attitude, reminding him of the sexual freedom he sacrificed for married life, and with her, he has a sexual encounter. Antonioni’s half-hour concludes with the meeting of the two women on the beach. Now, if anyone knows of anything less cliché than a man cheating on his wife because he’s bored with their relationship, raise your hand. The plot is not original at all and Luisa Ranieri is certainly not the Loren. Like all final works, "The Dangerous Thread of Things" leaves the impression of a rehash of what’s already been said in the past, like the incommunicability that has always paired him with Bergman, the irreversibly damaged relationships. Reasonably disappointing.

"Equilibrium" - Steven Soderbergh. From today’s Tuscany, we fly to New York about fifty years back and leave the stunning Italian September panorama to enter the small office of a psychoanalyst (Strangely enough, it's quite a leap in quality). The patient is Robert Downey Jr, who tells his analyst (Alan Arkin) about a recurring dream that disturbs his nights: a woman gets up from the bed he is lying on, dresses calmly but doesn’t reveal her face, and the man can’t remember who she was. Meanwhile, the analyst spies with binoculars on what’s happening in an apartment across from his office and throws notes towards the window, which acts as a stage. Unlike Antonioni, where everything is made explicit with the aim of achieving an almost screamed sensuality, Soderbergh’s episode is filled with an eroticism that doesn’t exist in strong scenes and leaves a lot to the viewer’s imagination; the result is a continuous crescendo of erotic charge. Added is that veiled and hypnotic touch of black and white, which contrasts with the almost hypertrophic colors of the dream scenes. Personally, my favorite.

"The Hand" - Wong Kar-Wai. A tailor falls in love with his client (Gong Li), a high-class prostitute, and does not abandon her even after her beauty has faded away. Of the three, Kar-Wai was the most praised. Her hand sliding over his fly is truly a memorable scene. However, rather than an erotic episode, Kar-Wai creates an exception: the sexually themed story between the tailor and the prostitute is not based solely on physicality (The fundamental element of eroticism) but is a spontaneous act that differentiates him from those that the protagonist commonly undergoes.

I conclude because I need to go out now and I hurriedly tell you that the soundtrack created by Caetano Veloso is a homage to Antonioni (just read the title) and the film was banned in China, as it was considered excessively explicit.

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