And no, while it does have pink lettering on the poster, it’s not ‘Barbie’. But it is female-directed and features a woman who proves an inspiration to women young and old…

I am convinced that one’s luck in this life depends on three important factors: gender, class and timing. Let’s say you were born an aristocrat during the Russian revolution, then things didn’t turn so well for you. Or a lecherous man in a #MeToo society — we all know how that turned out.

In the case of Paola Cortellesi’s smash Italian hit There’s Still Tomorrow (original title C'è ancora domani) gender, class and timing worked against her heroine Delia (played beautifully by the director herself) — the wife of abusive, chauvinist Ivano (stage, TV and film actor Valerio Mastandrea), living in Rome’s inner city in the aftermath of WWII. This is 1946 Italy, prior to women getting their right to vote, so we as the audience are left to wonder if gender and timing will eventually play in Delia’s favor.

The film is based on an idea by Cortellesi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Furio Andreotti and Giulia Calenda. It was made on a Euro 5 millions budget and has grossed, to date, over Euro 44 millions.

There’s Still Tomorrow is a modern anomaly in Italian cinema — a hit which brought everyone to the cinemas and helped the film break all kinds of records. Among them, it is the 9th highest grossing film in the country, ever, and it topped the box office for 2023, grossing over $36 millions, beating Barbie’s $34 millions and Oppenheimer’s $30 millions. It also remained in cinemas for 7 weeks, as opposed to her pink American counterpart which was in halls for 5 weeks, and the Christopher Nolan title, which was only in theaters for 3. The film won three separate awards at the Rome Film Festival, where it premiered, as well as the Nastro Argento 2024, a prize handed out by the Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani (Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists).

Audiences and critics alike agreed — they love There’s Still Tomorrow.

So it is a no brainer that for its inaugural venture into film distributing, Vue — the UK cinema chain — picked Cortellesi’s hit to open in their multiplexes, across Great Britain and Ireland. Starting on April 26th, audiences from London to Dublin, and everywhere in between, will be able to watch There’s Still Tomorrow, in all its grand black and white cinematography, by Davide Leone. This is a film that begs to be savored on the big screen, so Vue’s vision is the audience’s win.

Vue is not the first UK cinema chain to get into the distribution game. Picturehouse has been in it since 2010 and the chain has shown audiences here classics like Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster, currently playing, and Nadine Labaki’s Oscar nominated Capernaum, along with much much more. And Curzon Film has also seen the local distribution of festival indie hits like The Teacher’s Lounge by İlker Çatak and will soon be screening Marco Bellocchio’s understated masterpiece Kidnapped and La Chimera, by autrice extraordinaire Alice Rohrwacher and starring Josh O'Connor. When cinema chains take chances, everyone gains in terms of great, under appreciated gems which can stir audiences away from the culture void of blockbusters.

But back to the must-watch There’s Still Tomorrow.

Delia wakes up each day with a slap, literally, and goes to bed with worries and scruples, in her modest home in the popular Testaccio neighborhood of Rome. In between, she lives a strange life of walking on eggshells for her jealous, mean spirited husband, working odd jobs to scrape together a few Liras and putting up with her cantankerous father-in-law, who is bedridden but still a handful. She also craves to marry off her daughter Marcella (Romana Maggiora Vergano) to Giulio Moretti (Francesco Centorame) the son of a well-to-do “nouveau riche” family who own a cafe in their neighborhood — the product, most probably, of collaborating with the Fascists to betray Jewish families hiding out during the war.

One day, she receives a note, one we don’t get to see fully until the very end of the film, yet one which will bring her to the crucial ending of the film — which brought me, personally, to tears. The beauty of Cortellesi’s direction and the film’s writing is that at once, we are taken down different paths to imagine one thing or the other, when in fact it all turns out quite differently. And, as that wonderful song sung by Liza Minelli goes, “When it all comes true, just the way you'd planned, it's funny but the bells don't ring, it's a quiet thing.” A quiet thing which brings on a flood of emotions. Just the way I like my entertainment to be!

There is also a beautiful soundtrack to help the dramatic and comedic sides of the film come together, and it’s by Lele Marchitelli who has worked on a few Paolo Sorrentino soundtracks, including his Oscar winning The Great Beauty. Included in there are some underappreciated songs like ‘Calvin’ by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. I imagine this beauty will get a renaissance, thanks to Cortellesi and her film.

It is moments like these, sitting in a darkened movie theater in the company of a great contemporary Italian film, by a fellow woman no less, that make me proud of being Italian. But also give me hope in the human race, as in the plush seats of those magical cinema moments, we can find an answer to our discontent and realize that many before us have felt it too. And if they could find their answers through all their hardships, so can we. Because the word “tomorrow” holds such sweet possibilities…

There’s Still Tomorrow will be in cinemas in the UK and Ireland from April 26th. Check out the Vue website for theaters and timings near you.

Images courtesy of Vue distribution, used with permission.