Scene 2

Six years earlier...

Tourists walk around and photograph a well tended garden enclosed by tall, ancient stone walls. Through the ages, vines have been climbing to the top of the towers that no longer stand to defend what once in its history was a fortified estate. Guidebooks inform us that it has existed since Roman times, and for centuries it has been a property of the Audaces -- Al's family.

 Among beds of flowers and fragrant lemon trees, classical sculptures adorn the zigzagging paths that invariably lead to a fountain that is said to be older than the city itself. The side walls are lined with precious frescoes -- some originally from the site, others coming from various historical properties the Audaces own around the country. A prized possession of the family that has ruled Ferraza for millennia now, the Audaces opened the gardens for public visitation centuries ago, as a gift to their hometown -- yet keeping appointed hours for the exclusive visiting of the patients from the hospital across the street, which is owned by the family, too. 

The Roman Gardens, as they are called, are the most visited site of Ferraza.

When we meet the characters back in 1970, Al and Venus are supposedly 18 and 15 years old. The director hadn't wanted to have teenage actors to tell the story of his main characters when they were younger. So he filmed them from different angles, to alter their height, and apart from changing their hairs, asked them to lose weight -- which was another reason of stress for Thaysa, who on the contrary was starting to gain weight. She did go on a diet, even if constantly worrying about the baby growing in her belly -- with her belly -- and whether she wasn't harming it by eating less instead of feeding its growth by eating more. It were days of profound doubt and confusion for her -- but she never considered stopping working. 

Partially dressed as a Roman boy and girl, Al wears a laurel crown, while Venus' is made from white narcissus. The book tells us they are rehearsing for a play Venus has written herself. Taking place in Roman Antiquity, it's the naive story of a slave girl and her master's son, who use the Gardens for their secret, romantic dates. Pretty much inspired in Venus and Al's story, since they have first met in the Roman Gardens themselves, when they were just children. It's only as teenagers that their love has finally bloomed into a relationship.

Observed by Vittoria, who hides behind a column, Venus plays the harp. So unskillfully, so terribly bad, that Al has to exclaim,

"Girl! You will drive the audience away playing like that!" He says, whining. "No, stop. It's awful, Venus! Stop! You will raise the dead! Is that what you want?"

She immediately quits it, walking away from him. After a few steps, she is crying.

"No, Venus." Al goes after her, not without showing some disdain at her being so emotional. "Please don't cry. I did not mean your mother. I mean, she is dead, but... I didn't mean her." He tries to embrace the girl, but she pushes him away. He looks more and more confused with the words he is trying to find to comfort her. "Cazzo! I meant dead people in general." He is now irritated.

"Like you sister? Your dead sister?" Venus hisses. (It's hard to avoid the temptation of sharing details found in the book and that have been omitted in the movie -- one of Al's sister has been kidnapped a few years ago, and though Al's father did pay the ransom, she was killed)

"Now, you don't have to be cruel!" He says, reproachfully.

"Are you saying that to yourself?" Venus retorts.

"Come on, carina. We shouldn't be fighting when we have so few weeks left..."

"You are being cruel again!" Venus shouts, and starts sobbing.

"Hush. No. I haven't left yet, have I? Here we are. And we have your play to rehearse. Shouldn't we continue?" Al is caressing Venus, stroking her hair, all the time trying to make her stop crying. When he succeeds, and she agrees to resume the play, he announces "But first, I have to pee."

"While I am thirsty." Venus retorts. "Will you meet me by the fountain? We can rehearse our other scene over there."

Leaving in opposite directions, they are smiling and blowing kisses at one another.

What happens next is very fast. Venus approaches the fountain, and we see Vittoria following her from behinds the columns. 

Venus bends to sip from the ancient fountain, the crystalline water pouring out of the mouth of a colossal lion's head in bas-relief . But she sees a shadow quickly coming over her, and turns just in time to see Vittoria jumping to attack. Vittoria grabs Venus by the neck and tries to drown her.

A fight ensues. Venus' bustier gets ripped in the process. The surprise and shame of seeing herself semi naked gives Venus new strength to fight against her opponent. The two girls fall inside the fountain. Now Vittoria is surprised, and releases Venus.

There was the usual criticism for Thaysa appearing naked again. Many people check this scene for the first signs of pregnancy, for the filming would be interrupted a few days later, to be resumed many months ahead. Many say it was exactly the pregnancy that gave Thaysa such mesmerizing looks. Her skin shines, and looks so soft and yet tight. No matter how much more famous,Valeria Mongella is a pale beauty in comparison. The director stimulated the actresses competition asking Valeria to look undone in her frustration, while Thaysa was supposed to look innocent and fresh in her untidiness.

Except for the grunts and moans, the two actresses don't exchange a single word.

But Vittoria isn't out of action for long, and soon attacks Venus again, grabbing her hair -- who lets out a sharp cry not just of surprise, but because it really hurt, she later told the press.

Al arrives at the fountain, running.

"Stop. The two of you. Stop now!" He commands. The girls don't listen nor even seem to notice his presence. He stands ridiculously bossy, while keeping his distance. As Vittoria and Venus fight, water splashes, and Al clearly doesn't want to get wet -- though he is shirtless, and the girls wear light clothes, supposedly indicating it is warm. 

The truth is Adrian Çellon, having lost weight, is happier than ever with his abs, and insisted to shoot the scene without a shirt on -- nor any underwear. Still, he did not want to get wet -- but in the end is forced to go into the fountain to separate the girls.

"Puttana! Bitch!" Vittoria shouts, as a teenager echoing the shout we have already heard from her mouth as an adult. She sits on a stone bench by the fountain, and is shivering in her wet dress.

"Vittoria Eugenia!" Al exclaims. It sounds odd to say her two names, but he does so to keep his distance from the girl he clearly dislikes. He doesn't want to get involved, not in family matters that are not from his own lineage. At the moment, he is more concerned with his own wet trousers and  sandals. "Sisters shouldn't fight like..."

"She is not my sister!" Vittoria interrupts him, stamping her foot.

"Now everybody knows..." He starts, trying to sound magnanimous, just to be interrupted again.

"She is the bastard child. My father made a mistake! He shouldn't have fucked that whore! He fucked her just once..."

"Stop!" Venus cries, for the first time saying something in the whole scene.

"And that once was enough!" Al adds, quite humorously.

"She is a whore, too! Like her mother, she is a whore! Puttana! She doesn't deserve you." Vittoria is now addressing Al, though not looking at him directly. From the book we know she is closer to him in age, at 17 years old. "She doesn't deserve you..." Vittoria repeats. Abundant tears flow down her cheeks.

In this scene, Valeria Mongella's first longest one, it becomes clear how she sets the standard higher, interpreting Vittoria Eugenia. Not in a moment she tries to fake her voice tone -- Thaysa's take on Venus -- or perform some weird clumsiness -- Adrian's approach to play a younger Al -- to pretend being a teenager. She simply looks younger, and it's the temperature of her emotional reaction that makes her act like a teenage girl. Valeria has not simply been acting in Italian movies and TV shows since she was a girl -- she has been acting well, and learning, and improving.

While Thaysa and Adrian look quite expressionless in comparison. Thaysa is at least trying to act Venus' sadness out, but Adrian's face is just bland. He seems more concerned with his hair, and how much of his chest and abs her hand will hide, when Venus embraces Al from behind, and smoothly whisper into his ear,

"Nothing, no one can make us part."

But how gorgeous they are, Venus and Al -- histrionic Thaysa and inscrutable Adrian. At the height of their beauty. The voyeuristic camera moves around their two bodies like a gaping, hungry mouth, ready to devour them. And they are both aware of its hunger, but instead of appeasing it, only stimulate and tease it the more. The audience is mesmerized, as if they are the real works of art, and not the exquisite sculptures or frescoes around them.

Not just as individual paradigms of beauty, they make a beautiful couple, too. Their fictional romance in CRUX went on to real life, when the cameras turn off. Having had a brief but intense romance during the filming, that had begun as a few nights affair during the rehearsals back in Rome, Adrian Çellon is one of the possible fathers for Thaysa's boy. 

Some say their romance ended when he learned of her pregnancy -- which is, a few days after these scenes were shot.