Movie Review: Giorni (also know as Days)

Claudio lives by a tight schedule. Upon waking, he showers, shaves, puts on a perfect tie, walks to work, drinks soda water, and takes his pills the second after his wrist-watch alerts him to do so. Claudio is HIV positive. Something he didn’t quite pencil in.



As Giorni opens, we see two men making out in the back of a car. We don’t know who they are, but we soon learn the powerful connection one made to the other. We also learn that Claudio is one of those men, upset and ashamed at his actions for he is moving to Milan with his longtime partner Dario.

But something happened to Claudio something that even he is unable to completely understand. By chance, Claudio runs into Andrea a cute younger employed waiter who also just happens to be the other guy that was in that car. Andrea has taken instantly to Claudio and wants to be a part of his life for one reason and only one reason - he’s in love.

At first Claudio tries to forget Andrea. Claudio sees him as too young and foolish to know what he wants. But at the same time he has to listen to his partner Dario making plans for the two of them for years to come when Claudio believes he doesn’t have years to come.

Andrea doesn’t care about years he cares about life now, even if that means making love to Claudio without protection with full knowledge that Claudio is HIV positive. He loves Claudio so much he doesn’t want protection to ruin the moment.

Giorni is perhaps one of the intense romantic yet disturbing films I’ve seen in a while. Through the excellent performances from Thomas Trabacchi (Claudio) and Riccardo Salerno (Andrea) you can really get the sense that their characters deeply care for one another - yet at the same time you cannot quite forgive the actions or the lack to stop actions from HIV positive Claudio. Giorni is one of those movies that get you so enthralled with the characters that you find yourself understanding them even in the mists of them making such horrible choices such as knowingly having unprotected sex with someone cursed with an incurable disease.

It would be easy to not understand Andrea and his careless passion towards Claudio. It seemed at times he may have had a death wish or was just confident that he couldn’t get sick. And it was equally hard to understand Claudio who knew he was sick, who had to deal with it day in and day out from his mother and sister to his doctor who prescribes him pill after countless pill. But throughout the movie it felt like Claudio and Andrea were inseparable, throughout life and perhaps even in death.

Giorni accomplishes what few films do. The movie got us involved and made us think. This is not a movie for homophobe’s to watch although I doubt they would get past the DVD’s cover of two men happily cuddling with each other in bed. And, Giorni is not a movie to watch if you think the movie is going to be a happy tale because the cover has two men happily cuddling with each other in bed. There is a lot of serious talk in Giorni and a lot of serious outcomes.

Giorni is both beautiful and sad and at times painful to watch. Yet it is an important film. Not because I feel that the gay population needs to see it and certainly not because the film is something you don’t normally see, but because the thoughts and more importantly the lifestyle has to exist in our real world. Perhaps to be judged, perhaps to be discovered, perhaps to be examined. That is what film does, it is meant to represent life not to hide it.



A really moving and tendered Italian movie that really need examination from many perspective. I would rate it 5/5.