I Love You Only: A Historical Oddity That Doesn't Quite Sing

Is it worth your Tuesday night?

Honestly, unless you are a die-hard fan of 1940s Italian cinema or have a weirdly specific obsession with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, you can probably skip this one. It’s got that stilted, stagey energy that makes you realize why some movies stay buried in the archives.

If you like historical costumes and people shouting about liberty while holding sheet music, you’re the target audience. Everyone else will probably spend the runtime checking their phone or wondering why the lighting is so weirdly flat.

The vibe is... heavy

Giovanni is supposed to be this charming composer, but the movie treats his political awakening like he’s joining a book club. There’s a scene where he’s forced to write a hymn, and the intensity the actors put into the ink-scratching is frankly hilarious. It’s just a song, buddy, not a revolution.

The dialogue has that weird, practiced cadence where everyone sounds like they’re reciting a manifesto. It reminded me a bit of the stiff interactions in Michel Strogoff, but without the sprawling adventure to keep things moving. Sometimes the camera just sits there, watching two people talk for what feels like an eternity.

Odd little moments

• The extras in the background of the street scenes look like they’re having a better time than the leads.
• There’s a hat in the third act that deserves its own credit. It’s magnificent and distracting.
• The way Vittorio De Sica moves through a room is just different, like he’s in a completely different genre than everyone else.

I found myself thinking about The Mummy for some reason while watching the tension build. It’s not that they’re similar, but there’s a shared feeling of people being trapped by things that happened a long time ago. Except here, it’s political ideals instead of curses.

The movie gets slightly better when it stops pretending to be a serious political thriller and just lets the characters be messy. It’s never going to be a masterpiece. It feels like someone tried to make a grand statement and ended up with a polite, slightly dusty postcard instead. ✉️

Still, watching people try to change the world with a melody is a nice thought, even if the execution here is a bit shaky. Just don't go in expecting to be moved to tears or inspired to start a rebellion.