The Double Hour

The Double Hour (Italian: La doppia ora) is a 2009 Italian romantic thriller film. It is directed by Giuseppe Capotondi, produced by Francesca Cima and Nicola Giuliano, and stars Filippo Timi and Kseniya Rappoport. Principal photography began in October 2008 in Turin, Italy. The film opened in Italy on October 9, 2009, after premiering in competition at Venice Film Festival in September 2009, where it eventually won the Volpi Cup award for Best Actress for Rappoport. It was also screened at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival.[2] Samuel Goldwyn Films released The Double Hour in the US on April 15, 2011.[3]

The Double Hour
Directed byGiuseppe Capotondi
Produced byFrancesca Cima
Nicola Giuliano
Written byAlessandro Fabbri
Ludovica Rampoldi
Stefano Sardo
StarringFilippo Timi
Kseniya Rappoport
Music byPasquale Catalano
CinematographyTat Radcliffe
Edited byGuido Notari
Distributed byMedusa Film
Release date
  • September 10, 2009 (2009-09-10) (Venice)
  • October 9, 2009 (2009-10-09) (Italy)
Running time
102 minutes
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian
Budget€2.8 million
$4.3 million [1]

Plot

Sonia (Ksenia Rappoport), a maid in a hotel in Turin, is cleaning a guest's bathroom when the guest apparently jumps out the bedroom window to her death.

Later, Sonia attends a speed dating event where she meets Guido (Filippo Timi), a former policeman who now works as a security guard. They strike up a friendship, and spend some time together after the event. As they part, Guido notices that the time is 23:23 - a double hour, when the hour and minute are the same. He believes that at such times, one may make a wish and it will be granted - although he admits to Sonia that it doesn't always work.

Some days later, Guido takes Sonia to the country villa where he works. The villa has an elaborate security system, but Guido disables part of the system so that the two of them can go for a walk in the grounds.

In the woods, they are ambushed by an armed man and Guido is knocked unconscious. Waking up in the villa, he is forced by armed men in balaclavas to disable the security system. The robbers systematically loot the villa of its art treasures and other valuables. As they leave, the leader of the gang menaces Sonia, suggesting he is about to rape her. Enraged, Guido launches himself at him. They struggle, and a shot is fired, but it is not clear what happened next.

Sonia is shown back at work, then visiting Guido's grave-site. She is distracted at work, frequently seeing glimpses of Guido's face, sometimes at a double hour. She is questioned by Dante, a policeman and former colleague of Guido, who suspects the robbery at the villa may have been an inside job. Dante gives her a photograph which appears to show her with Guido in Buenos Aires, although she has never been there.

Sonia feels her sanity slipping away as her visions of Guido become more frequent and elaborate. Finally she is devastated when she hears that her friend and workmate, Margherita, has committed suicide by jumping out a window.

At Margherita's funeral, Sonia is distraught when the officiating priest names the deceased as Sonia instead of Margherita. Bruno, a regular guest at the hotel, takes Sonia away in his car. He gives her a flask which he says contains coffee and a hint of liqueur. Sonia drinks, and is drugged. Bruno drives to a wooded area and drags Sonia out of the car, wrapping her in a plastic sheet and burying her in a shallow grave. Sonia blacks out, and is at the point of death when Guido digs her up and rescues her.

Actually, Sonia is recovering from unconsciousness in a hospital. She learns that only three days have elapsed since the robbery, and everything she experienced since was only her imagination, as she lay in coma. She was wounded in the head by that gunshot. And Guido and Margherita are both alive and well.

Guido is made aware when Dante tells him that Sonia has a criminal past, when 12 years earlier she helped her boyfriend rob her father's home, but Guido asks they be left in peace. Guido goes to see the speed-dating organizer to tell her he no longer needs her events, but when she tells him that Sonia specifically asked to meet him, Dante's suppositions are confirmed to Guido. He goes to her apartment and has sex with her, but the next morning she tells him she has to go see Margherita. He, knowing she is leaving him as Dante had suggested she would, follows her surreptitiously, and, in the airport garage, sees her meet the robbery gang leader, whom she embraces and kisses, and who bears a resemblance to Guido. He eavesdrops on their conversation with a shotgun microphone, and learns that he was not supposed to have survived the robbery. As the couple get into an elevator, Sonia sees Guido, sitting in his car, who is in the process of calling Dante. Guido looks at Sonia, and she looks at him, unsure. The elevator door closes, and Guido hangs up, not reporting anything to Dante.

Nervously, Sonia boards a flight to Buenos Aires using a false identity. She notices that the boarding time is 20:20 - a double hour, and dwells to think for a moment.

In the final scenes, Guido is forlorn, and back speed-dating, while Sonia and the gang leader are shown being photographed together in Buenos Aires.

Cast

[4]

Awards and nominations

Remake

In 2009, the producer of the film Nicola Giuliano announced that there are a lot of requests from the US to buy the rights to produce an English-language remake.[5]

During the Venice Film Festival the cast and director joked with journalists about the possibility of an American remake with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts in the main roles.[6]

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gollark: <@356107472269869058>
gollark: I mostly just use orbital lasers as a partial hammer replacement.
gollark: And to somehow be proofed against hammers.
gollark: What do you want me to do, patch python's stdlib to use a cryptographically secure RNG?

References
  1. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=doublehour.htm
  2. http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/doublehour
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2009-10-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. http://www.indigofilm.it/archive/details.php?type=film&id=49
  5. """La doppia ora" verso il remake Usa"". Cinecittà. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
  6. Vazzoler, Marlen (10 September 2009). "Se dovessero fare un remake del vostro film chi vorreste che interpretasse Sonia e Guido?". mymovies. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
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