Lin & Wei · Poggio alla Sala

The day

Lin and Wei chose Tuscany for their wedding: Poggio alla Sala, a brick villa among the vineyards of Montepulciano, a few miles from the Umbrian border. The film moves among cypresses, the cedars of the park and rolling hills: red maples in the garden, elegant rooms, a small tower with round windows.

It opens from above, on the cypress avenue that runs through the fields to the villa, and soon finds the couple on the balcony of the little tower, above the terracotta roofs. This is a story built on words: the groom writes his letter at a desk, the rings resting on the wood beside him, and then reads it in the garden, flanked by two friends holding small cups, the pool behind them. The bride reads hers to him, and he wipes away her tears with his hand. Their sentences appear as English subtitles; the gestures say the rest.

The bride gets ready with her friends, then comes the first look in the garden, the groom waiting with his back to her in front of the view. Then vows read on the lawn, toasts with the countryside behind them and a great sculpture of white fabric that surrounds the bride like a veil.

Getting ready happens in two rooms. In one, the bride in a black robe by the window, lipstick applied with a brush, pearl earrings and a twirl with a friend in a pale blue satin slip dress; in the other, friends helping the groom with his shirt and tie, the patterned lining of his jacket, a toast between armchairs. Around them, the details of the villa: the hall with its frescoed vault and fan window, the staircase seen from above with the bride on the steps, hand-lettered cards among lilac and hydrangeas.