The secrets and things left unsaid within couples can take all kinds of forms, and Paolo Genovese seems intent on exploring them all. In Perfect Strangers he rummaged through the secrets hidden in mobile phones, and in Madly he ventured inside the minds of his two protagonists to reveal what people don’t dare say, but in The Sound of Something New - his new film which has been selected as the 21st Rome Film Fest’s opening title - the director grapples with the secrets of the soul: all those things we decide to keep entirely to ourselves, partly for the sake of peace and partly because they’re ultimately unspeakable. And given that Genovese already has the sequel to Madly in the pipeline (shooting is due to begin any day now) - just as this latest effort of his, which he’s adapted from his own eponymous novel, is launching - it’s safe to assume that we’ll soon be back to talking about relationships and hidden desires. But, for now, we’ll focus on The Sound of Something New.

The film follows three couples who are living a lie, each in their own way, in order to safeguard their comfort zones. Everyone is hiding something from someone else: a second job, an ambiguous pregnancy, an illicit activity, a contraceptive pill taken on the sly… In this sense, the film advances through secrets and frailties, showing how lies - initially conceived to preserve a reassuring situation - turn into cages. It’s very familiar territory for Genovese - couples for whom truth threatens to upset the domestic balance- except here it takes on a more dramatic hue.

Pallid cinematography by Fabrizio Lucci underscores the film’s claustrophobic side. In the first half in particular, the frequent use of out-of-focus shots, and framing which isolates characters from their surroundings, conveys solitude visually. The flashbacks also take on a disquieting quality: the past isn’t a place of reconciliation; it’s where truths which no-one wants to exhume lie buried.

But it’s in the character of Alba, played by Emanuela Fanelli, that the film finds its most compelling dimension. Alongside Umberto (Edoardo Pesce) - who carries out clown therapy for children with cancer, but who reveals a profoundly different side of himself in private - Alba is trapped in a relationship marked by domestic violence. She doesn’t necessarily have any bruises to show for it: it’s above all psychological abuse which undermines her sense of self, and Fanelli gives life to a tender, almost childlike character who nevertheless possesses inner strength and can’t ever be reduced to mere victim status.

The other two couples prove less incisive. Professionally frustrated Viola (Claudia Pandolfi) channels her insecurities into a web of lies at the expense of her affectionate and caring husband, Ralph (Lino Musella). Andrea and Andreina (Stefano Accorsi and Vittoria Puccini) complete the mosaic of repressed desires and unspoken truths, while the character played by Claudio Santamaria embodies another form of captivity: having shut himself away with his pain, he’s afraid to open himself back up to the world.

Genovese once again explores the fissures running through relationships, but the premise of this ensemble narrative - lives which seem far apart but are destined to intersect - is now a path well-trodden and doesn’t always generate genuine surprise or emotional engagement. The result is a work which struggles to shake off a sense of déjà vu, leaving unresolved the tension between an ambition to probe the darkest corners of relationships and the difficulty involved in closely engaging the audience in the protagonists’ stories.

The Sound of Something New was produced by Lotus Production with Rai Cinema, in association with Vice Pictures. The film will be released in Italian cinemas on 12 November by 01 Distribution. International sales are handled by Rai Cinema International Distribution.