While not a feature film, filmmaker Luca Guadagnino did premiere a new project in 2019. In collaboration with the fashion brand Valentino, the director created the short film “The Staggering Girl,” which is arriving exclusively on the MUBI streaming service this month.
And with the streaming premiere less than two weeks away, MUBI has released a trailer for “The Staggering Girl,” showcasing what Guadagnino did with his A-list cast and the cooperation of the iconic fashion label. The film follows the daughter of a painter, who has descended into blindness. After a mysterious stranger provides a startling revelation, the daughter returns to Italy to convince her sick mother to return to New York.
The short film stars Julianne Moore, Mia Goth, KiKi Layne, Kyle MacLachlan, Marthe Keller, and Alba Rohrwacher. Of course, it’s directed by Guadagnino, based on a script by Michael Mitnick, who previously wrote the films “The Giver” and “The Current War.”
We saw the film when it screened at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Unfortunately, our review critiqued the Valentino aspect of the film. We said, “Unfortunately, the resulting film is an aesthetically rich, yet semiotically empty ode to Valentino couture. Guadagnino may have insisted that ‘The Staggering Girl’ is not an ad. Sadly, it’s about as close to pure commercialism as cinema can get without fitting into the MCU.”
“The Staggering Girl” exclusively premieres on MUBI on February 15.
Here’s the synopsis:
Francesca is the troubled, expatriate daughter of the acclaimed German-Roman painter Sophia Moretti, who has descended into blindness. Triggered by a stranger’s secret confession, Francesca returns to her Italian childhood home to convince her ailing mother to follow her to New York. As daughter confronts mother, ghosts of Francesca’s youth return in an onslaught of pain, memory and fulfillment.