The Law According to Lidia Poët (La legge di Lidia Poët)

I knew from the start that you'd come to a bad end.

Dad?

You, Lidia Poët,

have knowingly undermined the spirit of the law,

the good name of our institutions, and the public order.

You have usurped the title of solicitor

and imposed your feminine presence in the halls of justice.

For this, we hereby sentence you.

Ready!

Aim!

Fire!

THE LAW ACCORDING TO LIDIA POËT

Do you need anything, miss?

Thank you, Albertina.

Good morning.

Good morning, Lidia.

Did you sleep well?

Yes, well enough.

Teresa and I would like to express our full solidarity with you once again.

It was an unseemly attack.

The editor of the Gazette already personally apologised

and promised a prompt retraction,

although I am considering asking for substantial compensation

given the heinously defamatory tone and vulgarity of the insinuations.

There's no… No.

Did I say something wrong?

It's just that…

what they wrote is not entirely false.

-There. -Excuse me?

Prosecutor Fourneau and I,

before this whole trial began,

had an amicable relationship, let's say.

Define

"amicable," please.

Romantic.

Obviously, we were very discreet,

and this matter didn't affect the proceedings at all.

Quite the opposite.

But, look, if that kiss the papers are talking about…

Did it happen?

Yes, it happened.

-I'd better leave you two alone. -No, Teresa, stay.

Stay. There's nothing we can't talk about.

And, honestly, there's nothing I should be ashamed of.

It's not about you being ashamed or not, Lidia.

I don't care. I don't care how you fall in love,

fall out of love, get married, don't get married.

I gave up trying to understand you.

But the fact that you involved me in a trial

in the Court of Assizes

while you were having a relationship with the prosecutor, that's unforgivable.

What is unforgivable, Enrico?

That I lived my life freely?

Your freedom, your actions, have consequences on other people's lives.

Don't start talking like Dad. Don't lecture--

-No. I won't allow that. -I should have told you. I'm sorry.

-I don't know what else to say. -No! You stay and listen.

I've been doing your bidding for four years.

"Help me with the appeal to the Court of Cassation."

"Of course!" "Bring my legislation to court."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Can you represent my friend Grazia?" "Of course! I'll do it for free!"

I've lost sleep over you.

I've done everything for you!

And you?

What have you done?

You only think about yourself.

Take your things and get out of this house.

You and I are done.

I'm sorry, Teresa.

Here, this is your room.

-Thank you. -Make yourself at home.

Dear Jacopo, I am writing to you as the only true friend I have left

not to discuss if my brother is right or wrong,

but to address the only issue that really matters to me,

which is the fate of my friend Grazia.

So the future, not the past, which I am not ready to discuss.

However, I would like Enrico not to neglect the battle

we started together despite our quarrel.

Look into Fontana's past.

I can't believe it.

Do you remember me?

We graduated together in '81. I still remember the applause you got.

Giulio, of course.

Forgive me, I was writing a letter, if you don't mind.

-Of course, there's no rush. -Thank you.

Look, the article they wrote about you was really cowardly. I hope they'll…

-Can you bring us two glasses of grappa? -Giulio!

Honestly, I have no idea…

Who I am, yes, I get it.

Do you believe in providence?

Neither do I.

But when I saw you here, I thought maybe I should change my mind.

I've been assigned a case that is really keeping me up at night--

I'm going through a rough time. I have so many things to do.

It's about a child wrongly accused of murder.

Fourteen years old. Beaten since birth.

May I go on?

Can I say no?

The headmaster found him standing six feet

from the teacher's corpse with blood all over his hands.

The prosecutor says that's enough to pin it on him,

but I know it wasn't him.

His name is Berto Tonelli.

I want to help him, but he won't talk.

He has this look in his eyes… Are you listening to me?

Yes.

I think your help would be invaluable. I never--

Fine, but if I help you, can you stop talking for five seconds?

While you're at it, deliver this for me.

The address is written on it. Thank you, Bonomo.

Your brother is not in his right mind.

He's not entirely wrong.

Maybe.

But I was thinking,

if ours had been

a normal relationship,

out in the open…

We decided together.

Tomorrow, the Gazette will publish an official retraction.

-There's no point thinking about it. -That's exactly the point.

Now, this might sound crazy,

but let's say we don't deny it.

We don't deny it and declare, in front of everyone, that we love each other.

And that we intend to get married.

I'm not saying it to save face. I'm saying it because I mean it.

Because I want it.

From the first time we kissed.

Tell me if it was just my imagination, if…

-If it's all in my head-- -Pier.

I don't want to get married.

I care about you, you know that.

And I love you.

I'm sorry.

Berto's classmates say

that the teacher had severely punished him in front of everyone.

And this, for Prosecutor Cantamessa, is the reason why he smashed in his head.

He used a desert rose, a stone from the teacher's collection.

See what he's doing? He doesn't say anything.

Because you didn't ask him anything.

Okay, so…

Hi, I'm Lidia.

I'm here to help you.

I heard that your name is Berto, right?

Nice to meet you, Berto.

Would you like me to try to get you back home?

I thought so.

To get you out of here, I need to ask you a few questions first.

Is that okay?

Is it true that the teacher punished you in front of everyone?

Did he do that often?

Did he beat you?

Mr Borromei didn't beat anyone.

The other teachers did, with a ruler.

But he didn't.

He just yelled at me.

When I went in, I found him on the floor.

There was a lot of blood. Then they told me that he was dead.

It's true, I'm afraid.

But now we're here

to figure out what happened to him.

If you want to help us.

Do you think I can go home?

Berto, the people who brought you here,

they have reason to believe that you killed the teacher.

Do you understand?

But if what you told me is true, we'll make them change their minds.

All right?

The details are unclear.

But I think Enrico was there too.

And he was fiddling with a kind of mechanical pump,

like what you used with your velocipede.

And while he was fiddling, I swelled up.

But I was light and soared in the sky, higher than Superga.

Like a hot air balloon?

Exactly.

Round like a hot air balloon.

Or like a woman in her last month of pregnancy.

Darling, it's just a dream.

Darling,

I dreamt I was pregnant.

Yeah, we dream about many things.

Yes, but there are premonitory dreams. Even Schopenhauer says so.

Not German philosophy, Teresa, please.

Are you proud of what you did?

Lidia put me in an untenable predicament. The trial is lost.

That's where you're wrong.

The bourgeois newspapers are all against you. That's true.

But there's one that's ready to support you.

You mean yours?

When it comes to Lidia,

Jacopo's newspaper is always passionately bold.

Is this becoming an obsession, honey?

I get it. I won't bother you. Excuse me.

If you'll excuse me, dear.

Enrico, for once, listen to me carefully.

The narrative the press is presenting to the public is simple.

On one side, there's an upstanding war hero.

On the other, there's his wife,

unfaithful,