In the Mirror (Mi Fanno Male i Capelli)
Monica, adrift in the fog of a memory disorder, begins blurring her life with the screen personas of iconic Italian actress Monica Vitti. As her sense of self frays, she retreats into cinematic fantasies shaped by Vitti’s films, while her husband lovingly plays along, unsure whether he’s protecting her or losing her. A haunting, poetic portrait of identity dissolving into myth, set against the hushed coastline and echoes of Italian cinema’s golden years.
DIRECTOR
Roberta Torre
Actors
1h 23m • Rated TBC • Drama • Italy (2023)
Alba Rohrwacher • Filippo Timi
Visually, the film is praised for its meticulous recreation of mid-century elegance, with sumptuous costumes by Massimo Cantini Parrini and a wistful, romantic score from Shigeru Umebayashi, known for In the Mood for Love. These elements evoke longing, glamour, and a fragile tether to memory.
Overall, In the Mirror is regarded as a tender, mournful ode to Monica Vitti and the act of remembering itself; a film where love, cinema, and identity drift like distant waves, shimmering then slipping away.
CRITICS ROUNDUP
Dreamlike, melancholic, cine-obsessed elegy
In the Mirror is a delicate psychological drama steeped in cinematic memory and emotional fragility. Critics highlight Roberta Torre’s reverent, almost spectral approach to identity loss, crafting a film that feels suspended between grief and devotion. Alba Rohrwacher’s performance is singled out as magnetic: vulnerable, disoriented, and luminous in her unraveling. Her quiet shifts between clarity and delusion give the film its pulse.
The film’s referential nature invites cinephiles especially, mirroring the twilight of Monica Vitti’s life and legacy. Some reviewers acknowledge that the storytelling leans more impressionistic than traditionally plotted, deliberately blurring fantasy and reality. For many, this dream-logic creates an immersive, unsettling beauty; others may find the abstraction challenging.