40 years ago in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema, Terence Stamp walked into the residence of a wealthy family in Milan and proceeded to seduce in turn the insecure son, the depressed housemaid, the timid daughter, the repressed mother, and the industrialist father. A force of love that cannot be denied, the stranger’s coming and going breaks up the comfortable, even complacent family and changes everyone irrevocably for life.

In modern day Milan, the old school patriarch of the Recchi family would rather the second generation continue to build on his industrialist legacy, that its men be virile and hard-headed moneymakers and its women perform their duties as pleasant social appendages to the men. But love has other plans for each and every one of them.

The daughter discovers her sexuality and becomes a better photographer than she was a painter; the son meets a girl who transforms him from a gentleman of leisure into a businessman with a heart; an Indian venture capitalist approaches the hard-headed tycoon and turns him into a philanthropist. As for the mother – she falls in love too, but I’ll leave you to see with what or whom, how that happens, and how it breaks her out of her mummified existence as a dinner hostess and an appendage to her husband and children.

While treading the same theme as Teorema, Guadagnino’s piece is far less didactic and predictable. It is an arthouse film with a far more ambiguous story and attitude towards the power of love, more interested in exploring the emotional chaos of its characters. As a consequence, this is a film that takes its time, that isn’t afraid to linger in the right moments – just to capture that elusive emotion, that passing whimsy, that moment of calm before the storm.

I Am Love has gorgeous cinematography, lavishly detailed sets, and beautiful costume design. As a film, it engages both the visual senses and the mental faculties in equal measure.