The Big Picture
- Netflix is releasing Nuovo Olimpo, an Italian drama set in the 70s that follows a same-sex couple navigating prejudice and political turmoil to pursue their love.
- The trailer suggests that the story will have two distinct moments, showcasing the intense romance between the couple in their 20s and the filmmaker’s portrayal of their love story in the present.
- The movie theater where the couple first meets becomes a significant location, highlighting the magic and nostalgia of cinema and adding depth to the film’s celebration of love and cinema itself.
If you’re in the mood for something European or just for watching a foreign film and exercise those subtitle-reading skills, Netflix has great news from you. The streamer released today a trailer for Nuovo Olimpo, an Italian drama set in the 70s that centers around a same-sex couple that try to survive a dangerous period in time after falling madly in love.
The trailer for Nuovo Olimpo makes it clear that the love story will have two distinct moments: First, the period in which Enea (Damiano Gavino) and Pietro (Andrea Di Luigi) meet in their 20s and find out they have irresistible chemistry. They have the romance of a lifetime even though they live in an era in which prejudice against LGBTQIA+ people was at an all-time high. That’s probably the reason why their relationship is cut short – which is only “helped” by political turmoil in Italy.
The second moment seems to be a love letter both to the men’s relationship and cinema itself. From the looks of it, one of them became a filmmaker that re-lived his brief but intense love story through his movies. This makes him an acclaimed director with the public frequently dissecting his filmography to discover facts from his past. But how do those two stories finally tie themselves together? Whatever happens to the two lovers in the second part of the story? We’ll have to wait some weeks to find out.
Home is Where ‘Nuovo Olimpo’ Is
Another way that Nuovo Olimpo seems to celebrate cinema itself is with its title and main location: a movie theater in which the men meet by chance for the first time and, as the trailer suggests, they keep coming back to create new memories. Cinema lovers certainly have their own movie theater stories to tell, and this location underscores how movies seem all the more magical inside a movie theater.
Nuovo Olimpo is directed by Ferzan Özpetek. The Turkish director rose to prominence after directing dramas like Loose Cannons, Steam: The Turkish Bath, Red Istanbul and Facing Windows. Just like in his previous films, Özpetek co-writes the script, this time with his long-time collaborator Gianni Romoli (His Secret Life).
Netflix premieres Nuovo Olimpo on November 1. You can watch the trailer below:
Check out the official synopsis here:
Late 70s. They are young, beautiful, and just 25 years old. They meet by chance and fall madly in love. But an unexpected event separates them. For thirty years, however, they chase the hope of finding each other again because they still love each other.
