Scola's Passion of Love, which is set in 1892, begins by charting the romantic ecstasy between Giorgio Bacchetti (Bernard Giraudeau), a handsome cavalry officer, and Clara (Laura Antonelli), the wife of an older man. When the captain is sent to a new post, he meets Fosca (Valeria D'Obia), a neurotic, reclusive, and physically grotesque woman who falls in love with him. This "costume drama," as the director calls it, plumbs the ethical depths of human sexuality. We are compelled to consider how guilt, pity, power, and self-destructiveness can move the human psyche into strange areas. Passion of Love succeeds in another way as well — it is a brilliant comedy of manners.