‘Confidenza’: A tense Italian psychological thriller 

Confidenza (Trust) is a new film by director Daniele Luchetti based on the novel of the same name by Domenico Starnone and featuring as part of this year’s Italian Film Festival. It is a slow-burning suspense drama with impressive performances by a premier cast, and a killer soundtrack by Thom Yorke, though it possibly doesn’t quite reach its full potential in the end. 

Pietro Vella (Elio Germano) is an esteemed professor who engages in an affair with a student 20 years his junior. The student, Teresa Quadraro (Federica Rosellini) is brilliant, confident, and a highly strung. Their relationship is fraught with tension and they have frequent emotionally fuelled if petty fights. One night, after such a quarrel, Teresa proposes they exchange a secret with each other— something that they have never told anyone else, something that could ruin their respective lives if it were ever revealed. It is a way for them to remain forever linked. 

Teresa leans and whispers into Pietro’s ear and he pauses briefly, absorbing her revelation. Then he whispers into her ear. Her reaction is more pronounced; she almost recoils then stands and walks away from him, digesting what he has told her. The audience is not privy to either secret. 

Time passes. Teresa has moved the America where she has become an esteemed scientist. Meanwhile, Pietro has gained fame as an academic writer. At various speaking engagements, Pietro spots Teresa in the audience and nervously remembers the secret he shared with her; a secret whose shadow has grown exponentially alongside his increasing fame as he now has so much more to lose. 

The narrative jumps back and forth in time and is interspersed with dream sequences. This has the effect of both intensifying the suspense and causing confusion. It also doesn’t allow enough character development for us to fully appreciate the stakes. It is the intrigue of the undisclosed secret that maintains viewer interest.

Cleverly, the film never even suggests what this secret might be, only that it is something horrible. It is the equivalent philosophy as never showing the monster in a horror film because the viewer can always imagine worse. 

In the last act, Pietro is much older and has an adult daughter, Emma (Pilar Fogliati). Emma is a very proud daughter and campaigns to have her father bestowed with formal recognition of his life’s work. As the ceremony for this honour approaches, Pietro becomes more and more paranoid, especially when he discovers Teresa will be in the audience. He has a fantasy in which Teresa is giving a speech at the ceremony and starts to reveal the secret. We do not hear the secret, but we see Emma’s reaction to it, and that is enough. 

One of the highlights of the film is Thom Yorke’s ominous, moody score, which fits perfectly with the emotional vicissitudes of the characters.

This is a fascinating study in how guilt and fear can become surrogate punishment for an untold crime. 

★★★
Showing as part of Italian Film Festival 2024. See program for screening details: italianfilmfestival.com.au