Follow Your Heart

Follow Your Heart

1996 · 110 min · ★ 6.1 · Drama, Romance

The complicated travails of several generations of Italian women provide the basis for this drama that is based on a novel by Susanna Tamaro. It begins with the peaceful death of Olga, the elderly family matriarch. Marta, her granddaughter returns from the US to attend the funeral and once in Olga's villa in Trieste, begins reading her grandmother's diary. Olga's story unfolds via flashback. As a young woman, Oldga had to marry Antonio a man she didn't love. Later she became passionately involved with a handsome doctor at the local spa. He impregnates her and shortly thereafter dies in a terrible car wreck. The result of their love is Illaria, who grows up to be terribly neurotic. She bears Marta and then she too dies in an automobile accident, leaving Marta to be raised by Olga.

Directed by Cristina Comencini · Written by Cristina Comencini

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Rent or Buy

Cast

Make it a double feature

3h 27m together

Follow Your Heart

La fine è nota

Both from Cristina Comencini.

More from Cristina ComenciniSee all →

History

History · 1986

SeriesDramaWar & Politics

The story of the half-Jewish Ida Raimundo and her two sons Antonio and Giuseppe in Rome, during and immediately after the Second World War.

La fine è nota

La fine è nota · 1993

La fine è nota

A young lawyer returns home and discovers that a man has committed suicide jumping through a window of his house. His wife, Maria, says that she let the unknown man enter because he said the lawyer was the only one who could help him. Bernardo start to investigate about the man and about the reasons of his suicide.

The Children's Train

The Children's Train · 2024

The Children's Train

In late 1940s Italy, a mother makes the difficult decision to send her son to the north, where he catches glimpses of a new life away from poverty.

The Ladies Get Their Say

The Ladies Get Their Say · 2009

The Ladies Get Their Say

Every Thursday a group of ladies would gather to play cards and discuss their loves, lives and children while their daughters played in the next room. Thirty years later, the daughters meet at a funeral for one of the mothers. Like their mothers, they discuss their hopes, dreams and fears.

Liberate i pesci!

Liberate i pesci! · 2000

Liberate i pesci!

Mafioso Michele Verrio has both a wife and a long-suffering mistress, Lunetta.

Merry Christmas... Happy New Year

Merry Christmas... Happy New Year · 1989

Merry Christmas... Happy New Year

MovieComedyDrama

In this romantic story, a couple (Michel Serrault and Virna Lisi) who have been married for over forty years are forced to separate, one to each of their two children's families, when they can no longer pay the rent on their longtime apartment. Absence, in this case, refreshes their memory of the love they have shared, and they take to meeting one another furtively in hotel rooms for sex and affection. One summer, as each of their daughters families takes them on separate vacations, they have had enough, and elope, finding contentment as lighthouse keepers off the coast of Sicily.

The Tasters

The Tasters · 2025

MovieDramaHistory

In autumn 1943, in Gross-Partsch, 26-year-old Rosa, who had come from Berlin to stay with the parents of her husband Gregor, who was fighting on the Russian front, was taken by the SS to a mysterious place. Forced to taste a dish, she joins the group of tasters responsible for checking that the food destined for Hitler is not poisoned.

Cuore

Enrico Bottini, an engineering student, prepares to serve as an officer when Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. At the train station, he meets Garrone, an old friend from elementary school, and begins to reminisce on the values instilled to him by both school and his father.

The Best Day of My Life

The Best Day of My Life · 2002

The Best Day of My Life

The lively goings-on of a modern family seen trough the eyes of a young girl just about to receive her first Communion.

Don't Tell

Don't Tell · 2006

Sabina has a regular life. She is satisfied with her job and her love for Franco. Lately nightmares start disturbing her, and almost in the same time she discovers to be pregnant. Step by step she remembers her childhood spent within a severe middle-class family. But a big secret is hidden within her heart. Sabina wants to contact again her brother, a University teacher in the US, to try to understand what is happened in their past. What is the secret? She is determined to bring clarity and serenity in her life. She finally manages to free herself from her "beast in the heart".

Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence

Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence · 1969

Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence

MovieRomanceDrama

Through the childhood and adolescence of Signor Giacomo Casanova (from his memoirs), this is a description of how people lived in 18th-century Venice: their customs, habits, medicine, religion, and--most of all--the omnipresence of hypocrisy.

Latin Lover

Latin Lover · 2015

MovieDramaComedy

The five daughters of a famous actor, all from different mothers and different nationalities, get together on the 10th anniversary of his death for a celebration of his career.

Something New

Something New · 2016

Lucia and Maria are two best friends, who have known each other from the beginning of their life, but have very different tastes and behaviors. Lucia is done with men, Maria, on the contrary, cannot be without one. One night, the perfect man shows up in Maria's bed: handsome, sensible, mature and passionate.The next morning brings up misunderstandings and lies which make the two friends split up and take a break for themselves. Maybe that young man met by chance is really the one every woman is looking for, because with his simple theories he manages to paint the perfect picture of the two women's lives.

When the Night

When the Night · 2011

MovieDramaRomance

After meeting during their vacation, two young people with solitary lives suddenly come into a relationship that could benefit both of them.

Marriages

Marriages · 1998

MovieComedyDrama

Matrimony is a drama about the complexity of relationships. On Christmas Eve, perfect housewife Giulia Francesca Neri is worried about a family heirloom which has cracked and rushes to the junk shop to get it repaired -- little anticipating her perfect marriage is about to fall to pieces as well. While everyone in Bologna is making last minute preparations, Giulia runs into her childhood sweetheart, Fausto Paolo Sassanelli. The meeting rekindles old feelings and Giulia realizes that to create the perfect marriage which everyone adores, she has sacrificed her own personality. While waiting to meet her parents at the station, she climbs into a departing train and disappears. The family slowly disintegrates, as if she were the binding element.

Woman of My Life

Woman of My Life · 2010

Woman of My Life

Longtime Italian cinema star Stefania Sandrelli (The First Beautiful Thing) is Alba, the mother of two very different adult sons. While Giorgio is a playboy who constantly cheats on his wife, Leonardo (Luca Argentero, Eat Pray Love) is always unlucky in love. When Leonardo finally meets the woman of his dreams, Sara, he brings her home to meet the family, but it appears this is not the first time that Sara has met Giorgio. Directed by Luca Lucini and stars Luca Argentero, Alessandro Gassman and Stefania Sandrelli.

More Like This

Michael

Michael · 1996

MovieComedyDrama

Tabloid reporters are sent by their editor to investigate after the paper recieves a letter from a woman claiming an angel is living with her.

An Angel at My Table

An Angel at My Table · 1990

An Angel at My Table

MovieDramaHistory

Based on the autobiographical work of New Zealand writer Janet Frame, this production depicts the author at various stage of her life. Afflicted with mental and emotional issues, Frame grows up in an impoverished family and experiences numerous tragedies while still in her youth, including the deaths of two of her siblings. Portrayed as an adult by Kerry Fox, Frame finds acclaim for her writing while still in a mental institution, and her success helps her move on with her life.

American Splendor

American Splendor · 2003

American Splendor

MovieComedyDrama

An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter