Rosa la Rose, Public Girl (1986) - Paul Vecchiali

​My first Vecchiali film, Rosa la Rose, Public Girl is a wonderous evocation on the entangled nature of living, one which investigates a host of rich themes related to youth vs. experience, love vs. pleasure, and control vs anarchy through a precise directorial vision crafted out of fluidity and affection. The entanglements and complexities of the world are perfectly exhibited through youthful objective perfection, as young Rosa's aura early on is one of elevation, existing above the harshness and cruelty of life - radiating a sense of perfection, her ethereal beauty is too good for this world. As the film's narrative progresses, Rosa's persona of perfection begins to fracture as she is introduced into the fray of living and maturation in which one's choices aren't simply rooted in self-indulgence. Her carefree lifestyle becomes progressively shattered, not through harsh dramatics but through natural realizations often attuned to experience in which the forces of love and melodrama create restrictions due to their complexities beyond mere indulgence. These restrictions are not to viewed as pejorative but simply intrinsic to love - the loss of control Rosa feels brought by sharing in something with another. The strict binaries that make up her life both in the act of sex and in the hierarchy of her profession are shattered by this new feeling. This is one of those films in which I feel like I'm barely scratching the surface of everything it is touching on, nor do I even feel adequate to do so. It's an elegant, emotive experience that unfolds like a great Shakespearian play delivering a ripe text worthy of investigation as it details the vast and varied emotional interconnectivity between a host of concepts such as love, pleasure, power, authority, control, etc. On first viewing, I'm already questioning if it is a masterpiece.