Director Tao Ruspoli explores 'love, sex and monogamy' in his new film, which arrives in theaters on Oct. 13.
In 2003, 19-year-old Olivia Wilde married Italian royalty Tao Ruspoli in a secret ceremony aboard an old school bus. Eight years later, they divorced. Wilde later said she was "so grateful for the pain and the heartbreak" of the split, because it ultimately led to "the great love of [her] life." For Ruspoli, the end of his marriage inspired bigger questions that inspired his new film, Monogamish.
"I'm writing to you today, because I'm in a state of total crisis. My wife has just left me after nearly 10 years together and my whole world has crumbled," Ruspoli explains in this exclusive clip from the documentary, as he writes a letter to advice columnist Dan Savage. "I'm about to lose my home, my adopted family, everything I care about."
As with, presumably, at least a fraction of the 1.1 million Americans who get divorced each year, Ruspoli was left wondering, "Is it natural to be monogamous, to be with one person for our whole lives?" (For the record, Ruspoli has not remarried, while Wilde got engaged to Jason Sudeikis in 2013, though they’ve not "technically" married yet.)
Watch the trailer for Monogamish below:
And here is the movie's official synopsis:
"Recovering from a heartbreaking divorce, independent filmmaker and son-of-an-Italian-Prince Tao Ruspoli takes to the road to talk to his relatives, advice columnists, psychologists, historians, anthropologists, artists, philosophers, sex workers, sex therapists, and ordinary couples about love, sex & monogamy in our culture. What he discovers about his very unconventional family, and about the history and psychology of love and marriage leads him to question the ideal of monogamy, and the traditional family values that go with it."
Monogamish arrives in theaters on Oct. 13.