Paola Cortellesi

7.1 There's Still Tomorrow (2023)

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Paola Cortellesi (Italy, 1973) started out as a television singer and actress. Then moved on to theater and cinema.

She made her directorial debut with the black-and-white C'e` Ancora Domani/ There's Still Tomorrow (2023), which mimics the neorealist style of the late 1940s. The reconstruction of life in that era is impeccable, but the film's peak of pathos are the harrowing scenes of domestic abuse.

The story is set in Italy after the end of World War II. Delia (played by Paola Cortellesi herself) is an overworked housewife who lives in a humble apartment. Her husband Ivano is arrogant and violent, and insults her in front of the children, two little boys and the teenager Marcella, who already works. When they all leave for work and school, Delia also takes care of Ivano's infirm (and no less vulgar) father Ottorino, who boasts of his past when in fact he went bankrupt and his wife killed herself. She then walked out in the dilapidated streets and we see that there are still troops patrolling the city. She visits a wealthy family, where she is paid to administer injections to the bed-ridden patriarch. She then visits a textile shop where she is paid for sewing work. She then visits an umbrella shop where she has to train a new employee (she learns that he will be paid more than her and the boss shrugs off her complaint saying that the new one is a man). Then she walks to a roof where she hangs laundry. She counts and hides the money she made. She finds a photograph of black people on the sidewalk and returns it to the only black soldier at the checkpoint. The soldier, William, is grateful, but they can't communicate because she doesn't speak English. William thinks her name is "devo andare" because that's what she repeats to him ("i have to go"). Delia then visits a market where she tells her friend Marisa, who works there, of her encounter with a US soldier. The friend knows that Delia's husband is abusive. On the way home she runs into Nino, a car mechanic, who has always been in love with her but missed the opportunity to propose to her before Ivano. Nino's business is not going well. Delia gifts him some of the chocolate that William gave her. We can tell from her look that she wonders what her life would have been if she had married the sweet Nino instead of the violent Ivano. The women of the neighborhood gossip that Delia's daughter Marcella has found a really good match, a boy from a wealthy family, Giulio. The boy asks Marcella if he can introduce the parents. Delia is delighted and invites them to lunch, but Marcella is ashamed and terrified that Giulio's parents will see how poor her house is. Delia is surprised to receive a letter. She reads it and hides it. Marcella is resentful that her father mistreats her mother all the time, and that her mother doesn't rebel. When she shows the chocolate that the soldier has given her, Ivano beats her up. Marcella hears everything in the next room. Even the women sitting outside in the courtyard can hear. And after that display of jealousy Ivano leaves the house to have fun. Marcella knows that he's cheating on Delia. Marcella confronts her mother who never rebels and Delia replies that she can't go anywhere else. Delia tears the letter that she received.
The following day Delia tells Marisa that she has been hiding money from Ivano to pay for Marcella's wedding. The day of the big lunch comes. Marcella is afraid of her father's temper, of grandfather's cursing, of her brothers' bad manners, and of her mother's humble clothes. Giulio's mother rubs it in that Giulio's family can afford meat that Marcella's family cannot afford. Giulio's sister studies, whereas Marcella works. Giulio's father smokes real cigarettes. Grandfather shows up in pajama and insults everybody. Despite the obvious social gap and the embarrassing manners of Ottorino and of the children, Giulio proposes. Delia trips and drops a plate. Ivano sends everybody out. Marcella knows what is going to happen: Ivano beats her up, and her father encourages him. Meanwhile, we hear Giulio's parents disparage Marcella's family.
Delia resumes her busy routine, and keeps hiding money from Ivano. Every time she passes by the checkpoint, William tries to speak to her but she doesn't understand that he wants to help her. Nino tells Delia that he is emigrating to the north because there are more job opportunities. He asks Delia to flee with him. Delia is clearly tempted. Ivano keeps beating her up and Marcella is disgusted that Delia does not rebel. Delia is thinking to flee with Nino, but she begins to notice traits in Marcella's fiance' Giulio that worry her. Delia asks William for a favor: to blow up the business of Giulio's family. Delia was afraid that Marcella's future was going to be similar to her own. Giulio's family is bankrupt. The wedding is canceled. Marcella is devastated.
It's a sunday, day of mass, but also the day of the referendum in which Italians are asked to choose between the monarchy and the republic, and women are allowed to vote for the first time. It's also the day when Nino is packing his suitcase. Delia finds out that Ottorino is dead, but hides it from Ivano. The family goes to church. The church is almost empty because most people are voting. Delia is looking for an excuse to leave the family, but a neighbor finds Ottorino dead and Delia has to return home for the traditional wake. The children are indifferent to the death of granpa: the boys want his room and Marcella is still crying for Giulio. Marisa thinks that Delia was about to elope with Nino. We suspect the same. When everybody is asleep, Delia leaves a letter next to Marcella's bed and goes out. She doesn't realize that she drops something by the front door: the letter that she received and hid all the while. Ivano finds it, reads it, gets furious and chases Delia in the streets. We still don't see what the letter says. Marcella wakes up and finds her mother's letter: it contains all the money that Delia saved for her. Marcella too finds the letter that Delia dropped. Thousands of men and women are standing in live to vote: Delia is one of them. The mysterious letter was a voter's card. Delia, in the middle of the crowd, realizes that she lost it. Marcella arrives to hand it to her without saying a word. Delia walks into the building and casts her vote. She wasn't trying to escape with Nino: she was trying to vote against the old establishment. Marcella is finally proud of her mother.