La ragazza delle gardenie

Alessandra Dominici is a member of the government aged 35. Her life is restless and full of political commitments. We meet her as she encounters two representatives of peasant associations. She looks barely interested and through the meeting she is contacted by her secretary: Alessandra must sell an old family property, a farm in Piedmont and she is due north to close the deal. A car is waiting for her. Alessandra, although annoyed, leaves to visit the ancient villa. Once she arrives on site, accompanied by her secretary, she enters the place architecturally attributable to the early 1900s. Arriving to visit the top floor of the villa, Alessandra finds, among the dilapidation and neglect proposed by the house, a dusty and worn brown notebook: Rosa Gentilizi＇s diary. the diary of the poet, Rosa Gentilizi, who lived in the early 1900s, her ancestor. By reading, the writings left in memory by the old poetess, Alessandra thus enters the history of the poetess: Alessandra has entered Rosa＇s story, two different time lines overlap with each other (the one of our days, and that of 1900) The diary tells of the impossible love between Rosa, a poet suffering from chronic tuberculosis, locked up by her austere parents in her room, and Antonio, a 1900 farmer with a noble, chivalrous and poetic soul forced to work in the fields, together with his two narrow-minded and grotesque fellow farmers, to lack of a solid education and a solid family behind them. The farmer, Antonio, after hearing about the poetess (a fascinating woman for the town, because everyone has heard of her but no one has ever seen her), and after being mocked by his companions because he showed interest in poetry and noble princes, decides to bet with the two. The bet focuses on Antonio writing a poem to be delivered to the poetess. if his effort is positively received by the poetess with a consequent response to Antonio, he will be safe from the verbal and physical harassment inflicted on him by the two colleagues. If not he will forced to work for the two farmers for the rest of his days. Once the poem has been delivered to the poetess, it is not easy for the farmer to receive a response: Rosa＇s parents, wanting to protect her from possible disappointments in love, have hidden the envelope containing the poem, written by Antonio, and a bouquet of gardenias. white, left as a gift by the farmer. Antonio having little time available (Rosa＇s answer must arrive within five days, otherwise he has lost the bet), goes to check, looking for the poetess＇s gaze, if she has answered: She sees him from her bedroom window but he doesn＇t see her. One evening, however, taking advantage of Rosa＇s parents＇ outing, Rosa finds the poem and the bouquet of gardenias. Having read the poem, Rosa remains amazed and in love with the words written by the farmer: she responds to the letter. Once answered, she goes out onto the balcony of her room, looks intensely at her possible suitor and then, perhaps invaded by too much emotion, collapses at the edge of the balcony: the poetess is dead but she has let her answer fall out of the window. Meanwhile, her parents return home (Antonio hid from them so as not to be seen) and find their daughter dead. Antonio, since the poetess responded, is free from the slavery of the two peasants, but is embittered because he cannot understand if that love story, born out of a bet, could become important for him and her. Alessandra, after seeing the evolution of this story, rushes back into the garden of the villa and finds a small white gardenia petal (remained intact, alive and lively and frozen in time ). The petal is the link between the present and the past. Alessandra is Rosa, Rosa is Alessandra. The MP, therefore, decides to keep home. On the return journey she seems to see Antonio sitting by an old oak and writing his poems.