Isabel Coixet presents “Trois Adieux”, adaptation of the latest novel by Michela Murgia

A native of Barcelona, ​​the committed and multi-awarded director, screenwriter and documentary maker Isabel Coixet is building a polyglot and borderless filmography, marked by highlights such as The Secret Life of Words in 2005, a film awarded four Goyas (the Spanish Césars), and especially My Life Without Me which moved many moviegoers around the world in 2003, giving her international notoriety.

Through the themes covered, his latest feature film, Trois Adieux, in theaters Wednesday September 2, echoes this emblematic film of his career. But if Isabel Coixet co-wrote the screenplay with Enrico Audenino, she is not the author of the story. Trois Adieux is the adaptation of the last novel (of the same title) published during the lifetime of the Italian writer Michela Murgia before her death, at age 51, from cancer in 2023.

The film opens with an enigmatic prologue, a female voice-over which comments on the "incredible dance" of starlings in the night sky of Rome, the first touch of poetry, singularity and mystery in a story which will include others until its final minute. The story itself begins with the bittersweet discussion of a couple on a motorbike in Roman traffic jams. A somewhat tense, but banal discussion, starting from a seemingly minor disagreement, and which will lead to a separation.

The man who decides to "take a break" is Antonio (played by Italian actor Elio Germano), a chef in full swing in his career. The woman who absorbs the shock is Marta (played by Alba Rohrwacher, simply fascinating), a sports teacher in a high school.

A few days later, Antonio left. Marta now lives alone in the apartment and she fills the space as best she can, even if it means finding an unlikely imaginary friend... She reveals nothing about her situation at high school where her colleague Agostino (the Spanish actor Francesco Carril, already in the casting of Isabel Coixet's previous film, Un Amor, in 2023), charming philosophy professor, tries patiently, in each of their brief exchanges, to unravel the mystery of the detachment she displays in all circumstances.

But once she takes refuge behind the walls of her apartment, Marta is furious. And she suffers from nausea and loss of appetite. Soon, a medical examination revealed the cause of his ailments. Against all expectations, the battle that is taking place will soon trigger a change.

Hymn to life

Having as its starting point a romantic breakup, Trois Adieux initially retraces a process of mourning with its share of denial, anger and even bitterness, before branching off without warning towards a much harsher path, an existential battle. The film could easily veer into melodrama, but Isabel Coixet intelligently avoids this trap. The setting of the plot, a Rome on a human scale, away from monuments and tourist sites, brings a particular patina.

Chasing pathos, the director offers portraits of finesse and interiority, in small touches, of the protagonists, starting with Marta, luminous and so endearing in the guise of Alba Rohrwacher. Under the threat of a sword of Damocles, the heroine of this pretty philosophical tale allows herself to feel desires and to listen to them, to desire, to simply be free. Receptive to little things she had forgotten to appreciate. Alive, whatever time remains. We do not emerge entirely unscathed from this tender hymn to life.