The Wait (2015 film)
The Wait () is a 2015 Italian drama film directed by Piero Messina and starring Juliette Binoche. The film is loosely based on two works by Luigi Pirandello. It was screened in the main competition section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. Plot. A Sicilian mother's son dies unexpectedly, just before his girlfriend comes to visit for the Easter holiday. The grief-stricken mother cannot bring herself to tell the young woman, and the film is about their interaction over a few days. Production. The film was inspired by a story Piero Messina heard  from a friend, about a father who had lost his son, and when the father refused to talk about it, people around him began to act as if it had never happened. While writing the screenplay, Messina was recommended two works by Luigi Pirandello, the tragedy "The Life I Gave You" ("La vita che ti diedi") and the short story "La camera in attesa", and used those to tie the story together. Production was led by Indigo Film in collaboration with Barbary Films and Pathé. Juliette Binoche was cast early on, while Lou de Laâge was found late in the  casting process through an audition. Reception. Peter Debruge of "Variety" wrote: A clear disciple of Italian master Paolo Sorrentino, the film-school-trained Messina served as assistant director on "The Great Beauty", and he adopts many of his mentor's stylistic predilections on his first feature. Debruge continued: Watching "The Wait", there can be little doubt that this first-time helmer has the potential to become one of Italy's most prominent new voices (the signs were there as early as his Cannes-selected 2011 student film, "Terra", another abstractly stylized exercise in psychological identification featuring Colangeli). From Sorrentino, Messina  has further developed his ability to deliver a stunning sensory experience, though the treatment feels inadequate for such lean material. If anything, his aesthetic choices are too impressive, calling attention to themselves, rather than discreetly enabling the appropriate emotional reaction.Mick LaSalle ("San Francisco Chronicle") praised the 2 leads, saying of Juliette Binoche, "If you want to see great acting — or more to the point, if you want to see an illustration of the human soul’s complexity — watch Juliette Binoche in this film" and adding of Lou de Laâge, she "has the poise, intelligence and precision to match Binoche ." A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" commented, "It's a pleasure to watch Ms. Binoche and Ms. de Laâge onscreen together. And there are scenes of each of them alone that are piercing and lovely."