Mamma Roma (by Gordiano Lupi)

Weekly section on the critical engagement of cinema by Gordiano Lupi.

 

This is Pasolini’s second film as a director and adds an important piece to his journey through Rome’s suburbs and their suffering inhabitants. Accattone-Tramp (1961) shows the world of the urban underclass of the Capital as seen from the male’s perspective, with a stunning Franco Citti, sublime interpreter of one of Pasolini’s typical characters: the male prostitute. Pasolini continues the film adaptation of his literary work (Ragazzi di vita-Hustlers The ragazzi, Una vita violenta-A violent life, Il sogno d’una cosa-The dream of a thing, Poesia in forma di rosa-Poetry in the shape of a rose…), defining an open discourse by scripts such as La notte brava - The wild night (1959), by Mauro Bolognini, taken straight from Ragazzi di vita. Accattone tells the boys’ daily life in the Roman suburbs, between fights, sleepless nights, stunts, days spent at the osteria, petty theft and prostitution. The Borgata Gordiani is set in the foreground by skilled camera movements, tracking shots, poetic views, close-ups and wonderful sequence shots. Mamma Roma enjoys the same suburban setting of Accattone, but the protagonist is a woman, Anna Magnani, in the role of a Roman prostitute who wants to change her life to devote herself to her son Ettore. Sergio Citti is essential, acting as interpreter as well as consultant for the dialogues in Roman dialect, played by amateur actors, apart from the great Magnani. The themes dear to Pasolini are those that accompany all his artistic life: the marginalized, the underclass confined to a ghetto, lacking communication with other social classes, the underdog’s defeat, the inability to free oneself from a fate of suffering. Despite Anna Magnani’s different view of the world from Pasolini’s she gives a memorable performance. Her Mamma Roma is a courageous mother, who is worried about the fate of a rebellious son, a prey to the storms of adolescence, who reciprocates her love but doesn’t know how to show it to her. My mother? What should I care for my mother? Basically I think I love her, because if she died I'd start crying, he confesses to Bruna, the girl who makes a man out of him.

Summary of the plot: Mamma Roma (Magnani) decides to give up life as a prostitute when Carmine (Citti), her pimp, gets married, setting her free from any obligation towards him. The woman decides to devote herself body and soul to her son, Ettore (Garofalo), who knows nothing about her her job and grew up in nearby Guidonia. Mamma Roma begins to sell fruits and vegetables; she moves into an apartment at the outskirts of Rome, takes care of the child, tries to guide him in his choices of girls and tries to find him a job. She doesn’t want the boy to end up as she did, buried in the outskirts of Rome, but she dreams a peaceful future, with a respectable job for him. Suddenly, the pimp is back searching for Mamma Roma and makes her walk the streets again signaling both that the past that cannot be erased and the inevitability of fate. Ettore learns from Bruna what her mother’s true profession was, and as a reaction, he begins to commit crimes; he is eventually arrested after stealing a radio from a hospital patient. The finale is rather melodramatic: the boy dies in prison, tied to a bed and put in restraint, fallen prey to a feverish delirium. The movie is dedicated to the art historian Roberto Longhi and some scenic representations are pictorial, with the help of Flavio Mogherini, a - future director raised in the ‘Pasolinian’ style school of film making. The finale, with the kid who dies tied to the prison bed, recalls a one of most poignant of Mantegna's paintings, the Dead Christ. Carlo Rustichelli’s soundtrack is based on Antonio Vivaldi’s symphonies and accompanies poetic gloomy black and white shots. Violino tzigano - Gypsy violin, from time to time, interrupts the baroque music with some notes of popular music. The pace is slow, rhythmic, between sequence shots of the suburbs, panorama shootings, and dialogues in Roman dialect. It’s pure cinema: to see and follow the walks through Rome-by-night and following a logorrheic Mamma Roma telling episodes of her life mixing fantasy and reality is a feast for the eyes. Pasolini narrates by images a suffering humanity dreaming of an impossible redemption, resigned to an unhappy fate. The director makes a great figurative work and directs an extraordinary Anna Magnani who plays in the middle of a group of amateur actors in a very skillful way. Pasolini is keen to unravel the complex relationship between mother and son, according to psychoanalytical standards, describing the difficulty of a teenager to express his love for his mother. A theme dear to the poet, who was very close to his mother, even though their love was proletarian rather than bourgeois. Poems such as Ballata delle madri - Ballad of mothers e Supplica a mia madre - Begging my mother, in the poetry collection Poesia in forma di rosa - Poetry in the shape of a rose, follow the same theme. The sentimental education of a teenager is another topic dear to Pasolini, who includes it in the film by using the character of Bruna, the girl who introduces Ettore to the mysteries of sex. The faces of the urban underclass, the Ragazzi di vita-Hustlers, who interest Pasolini so much, photographed in their natural expressions and their daily suffering are never missing though. The director lingers on football dirty pitches, made up by the kids of the township, with the goals marked by sweaters and jackets, symbol of a way of playing typical of the Sixties. The relationships among prostitutes are marked by a spirit of friendship and fellowship are foregrounded. Mamma Roma’s statements such as Then whose fault is it Had we had the means, then we would have been all good people, weigh like stones, even if the director does not interfere with the images, never giving a moral or political judgment, but simply photographing reality. The finale is fantastic: as realistic as if taken out of the book Cuore – Heart – way too melodramatic, that is – but it is also true that the representation of the maternal pain and the son’s suffering is dramatic and moving. Being in jail is not water under the bridge, but it is a pain that lingers endlessly. The film’s ends focusses on the mother's despair: the camera stops briefly on that suffering face, a Madonna torn apart by her son's death, and without fading or unnecessary delays, gives way to the word The End on a white background.

Accattone and Mamma Roma’s genre cannot be clearly defined: these are literary works, from which the entire director’s poetry flows. If I could give a personal definition, without sounding blasphemous, I would speak of neorealism aided by a hint of Pascoli and De Amicis melodrama, two authors very dear to Pasolini.

Some interesting facts

Novice Ettore Garofalo was discovered by Pasolini while working as a waiter in a tavern, and in some sequences of the film we see him at work in his real job, when he is hired to serve at the tables of a restaurant. The writer Paolo Volponi, one of Pasolini’s friend, plays the priest to whom Mamma Roma asks for help to find a job for his son. The exteriors in the film were shot on the outskirts of Rome, at the Palazzo dei Ferrovieri in Casal Bertone, the village of INA, Casa Quadraro, Parco degli Acquedotti and Tor Marancia. Other scenes were shot in Frascati, Guidonia and Subiaco. We often notice in the background the Basilica of St. John Bosco’s dome, as well as the shanty towns where poor people actually live. With a little trick, Pasolini manages to combine scripted and spontaneous dialogue. Anna Magnani in fact rarely acts live with an amateur actor in a scene: the dialogue is cleverly edited using close-ups.

Reviews

Paolo Mereghetti (three and a half stars): “The theme of a proletarian unconsciousness - or of a different consciousness - is at the centre of Pasolini’s second movie, where the director ennobles his characters with references to Renaissance painting (Dead Christ by Mantegna) , and reaches the top of pathos without shedding a tear: Mamma Roma represents a sore but indestructible femininity, while Ettore, skeptical and prematurely disappointed by life, is Accattone’s ideal brother, without being a dull replica of him. Magnani delivers one of her best performances despite the fact that Pasolini and her didn’t see eye to eye (he accused her of wanting to give the character petty-bourgeois traits).

Morando Morandini (three and a half stars from the critic, three stars from the audience): “The experiment of merging the acting of Anna Magnani with the Ragazzi di vita-Hustlers is partially successful, but despite imbalances, excesses and dumb zones, the film has moments of engaging stylistic power”.

Three stars from Pino Farinotti, who doesn’t explain his reasons.

Our opinion, as Pasolinians, is that the film deserves four stars: we cannot find flaws in an effective film, which combines psychological drama with scenes of everyday life, spontaneous recitation and a technical approach, a screenplay free of defects and a realistic dialogue.

Translation by Silvia Accorrà (edited by Sabrina Macchi)

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Gordiano Lupi (Piombino, 1960). Editorial manager of Edizioni Il Foglio, he contributes to Turin’s newspaper La Stampa as a translator of Yoani Sánchez’s blog. He translated the novels of the Cuban author Torreguitart Ruiz and published a number of books on Cuba, cinema, and many other topics. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi.

He participated in some TV broadcasts such as Corrado Augias’s Cominciamo bene le storie, Luca Giurato’s Uno Mattina, Odeon TV series on the Italian serial killers, Rete Quattro La Commedia all’italiana, Monica Maggioni’s Speciale TG1 on Cuba and Yoani Sánchez, Dove TV series on Cuba. He guested on some Italian and Swiss radio broadcasts for his books and comments on the Cuban culture.

In 2012 he published a long chapter in El otro paredón, an essay on the Cuban situation, written with four authors of the Cuban exile, and issued in the USA with English and Spanish versions. His books received a large number of reviews and mentions. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi. E-mail address: lupi@infol.it.

Kreola (by Gordiano Lupi)

 Weekly section on the critical engagement of cinema by Gordiano Lupi.

Antonio Bonifacio (Cosenza, 1957) is a factotum in the cinema world: actor, scriptwriter and film/ television director – and of few forgettable films. He was Aristide Massaccessi’s assistant, so his debut was impressive (Appuntamento in nero, 1989), but following this he went on to direct some low quality films including: Nostalgia di un piccolo grande amore (1991), Kreola (1993), La strana storia di Olga O (1995) – with Serena Grandi – Laura non c’è (1998, a flop!), Il delitto di via Monte Parioli (1998) and Il monastero (2004). He then created the TV series Turbo (1999) which imitated Kommissar Rex – and La stanza della fotografia, both rather discrete film genres.

Kreola is often broadcasted by some paid TV channels and you could watch it online in English, which was the most broadcasted edition. The plot is fairly simple- Kreola (Hampton) finds her husband Andy (Losito), who is a photographer in Santo Domingo. Here, she falls in love with the rough fisher Leon (Armstead) who is already in a relationship with Iris (Rinaldi), also Marco’s (Carbonaro) girlfriend. The result is a tangle of love and jealousy, which is teamed with slow movement of time and a syncopated rhythm.

There is much eroticism and some elements of a thriller, however the tension builds considerably slow and the finale is predictable: Kreola comes back to her husband.

The reason why a film like Kreola is still seen nowadays is that it reminds people of the old Italian cinema, for example of Joe D’Amato and his erotic Dominicans, who are honoured by Bonifacio. Kreola is a sound exotic-erotic film, which was well photographed and directed in the picturesque place that is Santo Domingo. The landscape consists of sea, beaches, colonial houses, music- merengue and bachata, which feature in every scene, even in the little islands and Caribbean parties. The actresses were well casted: Demetra Hampton – the sexy televise Valentina – is very sensual and manages to perform intense erotic scenes without a trace of discomfort. Cristina Rinald and Cristina Garavaglia are not inferior, they are often naked and maintain a cool composure while Cinzia Montreale is worthy and convincing, but it is worth mentioning that she did not perform naked scenes.

The male cast is not so impressive: three photostory actors are handsome but fairly inexpressive. In regard to other artistic elements, they do not fall short from the latter; the dialogues are farcical, the plot reduced and well known, and the erotic scenes, which initially promise a lot - thanks to steamy shower scenes, in the end become repetitive. The director manages to direct the cast with steady hand however, and executes the erotic scenes well - soft, if not slightly excessive, sometimes as far as to be considered porn. It is important to note that there is no attempt to portray local culture/voodoo rites as Massaccesi did; the script is by Stroppa, which could have had a dramatic aspect. The finale is dull and anticlimactic and the film is no masterpiece, but you can’t expect more from the film genre crisis of the 90’s.

Bonifacio said: “It’s a film without script, done to pay the previous ones. Every morning Demetra Hampton came to the set and shouted. She did the film for money and didn’t care. A film without plot, without anything. And all the actors are wrong. I hadn’t a dolly or a line, just the camera and the film.” (Nocturno Cinema) Kreola is a tribute to Massaccesi, a film that tries (without success) to revitalize the exotic-erotic genre. It is viewed only for historical interest and perhaps to admire the wild beauty of Demetra Hampton.

Direction: Antonio Bonifacio. Story and screenplay: Daniele Stroppa. Photography: Angelo Lannutti. Editing: Franco Letti. Production director: Maurizio Mattei. Production assistant: Ada Saruis Bandiera. Art director (sets): Antonio Visone. Costumes: Alessia Mattei. Direction assistant: Massimo Giacchi. Camera assistants: Donatella Donati, Ettore Corso. Still photographer: Carlo Lannutti. Sound engineer: Andrea Angioli. Music publishing: Emi Music Publishing Italia srl. Production: Real Film srl. Film: Kodak spa. Development and print:Techinicolor spa. Running time: 87’. Genre: Erotic/Drama. Actors: Demetra Hamnpton (Kreola), Theo Losito (Andy), Cinzia Monreale (Jo Ann), John Armstead (Leon), Crisitna Garavaglia (Consuelo), Marco Carbonaro (Marco), Cristina Rinaldi (Iris).

Translation by Emma Lenzi (edited by Amy Scarlett Holt)

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Gordiano Lupi (Piombino, 1960). Editorial manager of Edizioni Il Foglio, he contributes to Turin’s newspaper La Stampa as a translator of Yoani Sánchez’s blog. He translated the novels of the Cuban author Torreguitart Ruiz and published a number of books on Cuba, cinema, and many other topics. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi.

He participated in some TV broadcasts such as Corrado Augias’s Cominciamo bene le storie, Luca Giurato’s Uno Mattina, Odeon TV series on the Italian serial killers, Rete Quattro La Commedia all’italiana, Monica Maggioni’s Speciale TG1 on Cuba and Yoani Sánchez, Dove TV series on Cuba. He guested on some Italian and Swiss radio broadcasts for his books and comments on the Cuban culture.

In 2012 he published a long chapter in El otro paredón, an essay on the Cuban situation, written with four authors of the Cuban exile, and issued in the USA with English and Spanish versions. His books received a large number of reviews and mentions. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi. E-mail address: lupi@infol.it.

Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom (by Gordiano Lupi)

Weekly section on the critical engagement of cinema by Gordiano Lupi.

Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom is the most debatable and complex film by Pasolini. It is posthumous, but complete. Released in 1975, after writing Abiura alla Trilogia della vita (Abjuration of life’s trilogy) and a highly critical speech against authority, refusing the past as “lots of meaningless and ironic ruins”. In his abjuration Pasolini didn’t deny the light and merry eroticism in Decameron, in A Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) and in The Canterbury Tales, but he thought that these kinds of works were a thing of the past.

It is easy to say that Salò is a film against authority and that Pasolini is interested in the historical reality as a symbol which is there to speak about the contemporary consumeristic mass society which is guilty of cancelling human identity. The plot is based on the novel The 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis De Sade – one of the most abhorred and misunderstood philosophers in history – and is set in a castle during the Republic of Salò, while Fascist ideology was spreading. The main characters are rather disagreeable and repulsive: they are four Signori who order the capture of nine boys and nine girls as predestined victims. These people are first gathered in a castle during an atrocious Antinferno (Hell’s Vestibule): three days or so-called circles of obsessions, shit and blood respectively follow, becoming the structure of the film. During the three days some narrators entertain these four Signori, who give free rein to a series of sexual depravations, tortures and excesses.

Pasolini had never been so gloomy and tragic, without hope – except for a few love scenes and sentimental flashes – because everything in the film is excessive and shocking horror. The four main characters without morality are playing the game, while a pianist plays classical music, joining the story. There are many nudes, especially of men, repulsive scenes hard to watch (i.e. the shit circle), and tortures shot as if it was a film of pure exploitation. Many critics have consideredSalò – together with Salon Kitty and The Night Porter – the film that has contributed to give birth to the Nazi-erotic subgenre. Salò is not a collection of tortures and excesses which represents an end in itself, but the films belonging to the Nazi subgenre have imitated some of Pasolini’s extreme scenes. We consider Salon Kitty by Tinto Brass the true first film belonging to the Nazi-erotic subgenre, because of its plot and motivations. Salò shows a lot of sex, but no eroticism: sex is gloomy, tragic, imposed, victims cry, suffer and are subjected to rapes, as opposed to the Trilogia della Vita (Life’s Trilogy). “Nothing is more contagious than evil” says a torturer. “Don't you know we intend to kill you a thousand times? To the end of eternity, if there is an end to eternity have an end”, adds this gloomy character, quoting De Sale. The film goes on showing lessons of depravation, masturbations, suicides and political declarations, justifying the suffered violence: “Us Fascists are the only true anarchists. True anarchy is that of power”. A fake marriage has its wedding party composed by naked boys, but its consummation is stopped by the four men, with their desires and devoid of any feelings. “Without bloodshed, there is no forgiveness,” they say, playing on the confused quote between Baudelaire and Nietsche. One of the gloomiest scenes sees the boys and girls eating out of smelly bowls like dogs on the leash, while one of them gets hurt by nails, hidden in the polenta by a torturer. The victims’ faces are really sad, there are just blood, tears and no love.

The circle of shit is awful and desecrating, the victims are forced to eat excrements in very disturbing scenes. “Nothing goes to waste”, affirm the torturers. An awful wedding between one of the signori and a boy dressed like a bride, is the prelude to a disgusting excrement-based meal, ending with a kiss between two mouths dirty with shit. “The limitation of love is that you need an accomplice”, says another sir, after having himself urinated in his face. The beauty contest among boys and girls elects the best ass of the group, while the torturers are philosophizing: “Ambiguously accepting social standards while transgressing them”, adding that the pleasure of the torturer is similar, but it is more difficult to reiterate.

The circle of blood is a continuous excess, opening with an explicit act of homosexual sex and one of the boy’s erection but also with the continuous betrayals of the victims, who are trying to save their lives. Everything is vain. The destinies are already decided. A political gesture (a clenched fist) of a boy, who is found out with a servant (Ines Pellegrini), is the prelude to his killing and the macabre executions of the culprits start. Another symbol has been shown at the beginning, when a little boy was killed in Marzabotto, the venue of a historical Nazi-fascist massacre. “Oh Lord, why hast thou forsaken us?” cries a girl together with the prisoners, tied up in a tub full of excrements.

The four men watch the tortures and the executions, sitting at the window with binoculars, and taking their torturers’ roles in turn while they are getting excited with their favourites. In the meantime, the pianist who has just played until now kills herself, without interfering or saying a word. The horror has gone beyond the limit. In the final torture scenes the exploitation cinema genre clearly influences Pasolini’s poetics, among cut tongues, hangings, quartered vulvas, tore members, castrations, brandings, cut heads, rape, anal intercourses, absurd dancing in front of the dead. Someone has seen a light of hope in the conclusion (Italo Calvino, Corriere della Sera, 30/11/1975), because two collaborators turn on the radio, wondering about the name of the girl, and start to dance. It is a brief scene of normality surrounded by so much tragedy, a partial escape from hell, a change. Adelio Ferrero (Il cinema di Pier Paolo Pasolini, Marsilio 1994) interprets it in an opposite way, seeing in the gesture of the soldiers just the habit and the acceptance of a status quo, a way to forget the horror just closing the window and thinking about anything else.

Salò is a dramatic film, filmed almost all inside – except for the fluid shots at the beginning and the tortures in the conclusion – its erotic narrations have a poetical tone and clash with the scenes of violence, rape and death. The director uses many philosophical and literary quotes, political metaphors to condemn not only Fascism, but every kind of power, which imposes ready-made and impersonal standards. The detailed sets are by Dante Ferretti, the ochre and antiqued photography by Tonino Delli Colli, the cultured writing by Pasolini and Citti, and the effects are translucent and disturbing enough.

Salò is a film that could have many interpretations, even the one concerning the author’s denial of his life and his cultural testament. We think it is not its right interpretation, because it is real attack on power, against the immoral arrogance of the leaders, who impose rules and there is no help for it. Pasolini uses an extreme text by De Sade in order to clash a global and consumeristic economic model, which he always denies with such a vital energy and a political passion, without giving up the fight. The poet expresses all his aversion to models of social homologation, which imply a cultural genocide and even an expropriation of the naturalness of bodies and faces. Pasolini expresses a painful and irritated break with the present in a radical, extremist and shocking poetical work. His poetry is disillusioned and graceless, self-destructive, scandalous and scandalising, unbearable and disturbing. There is no consolatory lyricism and over-refined flatteries, just squalor, painful submission and hell.

Salò is a decadent Decameron with no hope, characterised by the erotic stories of the narrators-whores. The four men represent limitless baseness, their culture feeds on Baudelaire, Proust, Nietzsche, Huysmans, but they only get excited with pornography, sex and blood. Salò is a macabre apologue of the impotence in power, a metaphor of State sadism, a transgression reduced in rites, full of anti-bourgeois anger. There is an inspiration and a contamination of cinema-dramatic models of Buñel, Brecht and Jancsó. The victims are tools and objects of abominable pleasures, some of them are hardened, others are conniving. They express helpless and alarmed faces, offended, raped, tortured, devastated, mortified and dejected bodies. Pasolini tells a gloomy, hopeless, claustrophobic, barbarous, immoral, tormented and tormenting story.

It is a violently traumatic film, which intends to shock the audience with unbearable images. It is a dark reading of the present, rather than an attack on past atrocities. It is an interesting work, which has to be studied without prejudices, to be seen only by a prepared audience.

Translation by Emma Lenzi (edited by Sabrina Macchi)

Direction: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Story and Script: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Collaboration to script: Sergio Citti. Assistant Director: Umberto Angelucci. Assistant Director: Fiorella Infascelli. Photography: Tonino Delli Colli. Editing: Nino Baragli. Still Photographer: Deborah Beer. Set Designing: Dante Ferretti. Costumes: Danilo Donati. Make up: Alfredo Tiberi. Production Director: Antonio Girasante. Production Co-ordinator: Alberto De Stefanis. Producer: Alberto Grimaldi. Distribution: Pea – Produzioni Europee Associate s.p.a. (Rome), Les Productions Artistes Associés s.a. (Paris). Musical Advice: Ennio Morricone. Piano: Arnaldo Graziosi. Studio: Cinecittà. Actors: Paolo Bonacelli, Umberto P. Quintavalle, Giorgio Cataldi, Aldo Valletti (Signori), Caterina Boratto, Helene Surgere, Elsa De Giorgi, Sonia Saviange (Narrators), Sergio Fascetti, Antonio orlando, Franco Merli, Lamberto Book, Bruno Musso, Claudio Cicchetti, Umberto Chessari, Gaspare di Jenno (Male Victims). Giuliana Melis, Graziella Aniceto, Dorit Henke, Benedetta Gaetani, Faridah Malik, Renata Moar, Anitisca Nemour, Olga Andreis (Female Victims). Tatiana Mogilansky, Giuliana Orlandi, Susanna Radaelli, Liana Acquaviva (Daughters). Guido Galletti, Giuseppe Patruno (Soldiers). Claudio Troccoli, Maurizio Valaguzza, Fabrizio Menichini, Ezio Manni (Collaborators). Paola Pieracci, Anna Maria Dossena, Ines Pellegrini, Carla Terlizzi, Anna REcchimuzzi (Procuresses and Servants). Bibliography and mentioned texts in the film: Roland Barthes “Lautreamont et Sade”, Simon De Beauvoir “Faut – Il bruler Sade”, Pierre Klossowski “Sade mon procania. Le philosophe scélérat”, Philipper Sollers “L’écriture et l’exsperience des limites”.

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Gordiano Lupi (Piombino, 1960). Editorial manager of Edizioni Il Foglio, he contributes to Turin’s newspaper La Stampa as a translator of Yoani Sánchez’s blog. He translated the novels of the Cuban author Torreguitart Ruiz and published a number of books on Cuba, cinema, and many other topics. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi.

He participated in some TV broadcasts such as Corrado Augias’s Cominciamo bene le storie, Luca Giurato’s Uno Mattina, Odeon TV series on the Italian serial killers, Rete Quattro La Commedia all’italiana, Monica Maggioni’s Speciale TG1 on Cuba and Yoani Sánchez, Dove TV series on Cuba. He guested on some Italian and Swiss radio broadcasts for his books and comments on the Cuban culture.

In 2012 he published a long chapter in El otro paredón, an essay on the Cuban situation, written with four authors of the Cuban exile, and issued in the USA with English and Spanish versions. His books received a large number of reviews and mentions. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi. E-mail address: lupi@infol.it.

Pascoski Caruso of Polish Father (por Gordiano Lupi)

Weekly section on the critical engagement of cinema by Gordiano Lupi.

 

Pascoski Caruso of Polish Father (1988)

Direction: Francesco Nuti. Story and Screenplay: Giovanni Veronesi, David Grieco, Francesco Nuti. Photography: Gianlorenzo Battaglia. Editing: Sergio Montanari. Music: Giovanni Nuti. Musical Theme: Giulia does not know. Length:103'. Gender: Comedy. Location: Florence - Rome. Parental Guidelines rating: 14 years old. Manufacturers: Mario and Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Gianfranco Piccioli, Giorgio Leopardi. Production: Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematografica, Union Film Festival. Distribution: Columbia Tristar Films Italy. Cast: Francesco Nuti, Clarissa Burt (voiced by Simona Izzo), Ricky Tognazzi, Novello Novelli, Carlo Monni, Antonio Petrocelli, John Nannini, Maurizio Frittelli, Lorenzo Arians, Umberto Angelucci, Gianna Sammarco (Giovanna Toccafondi), Margherita Nuti, Narcisa Bonati Giovanni Veronesi, Luigi Frosali, Massimo Salvianti, Patrizia Corti, Barbara Enrichi, Alfredo Marazzi, Isaac George, Angela Parmegiani, Claudio and Daniel Pelli, Luciano Lami, Ugo Bencini, Lorenzo Del Re, David Menna, Geneva Landi, Emanuel Pecchioli, Melissa Blanchard, Cynthia Lascialfari, Sandro Lizzo, the Great Dane dog.

Caruso Pascoski (Nuti) is a young Florentine who has an oppressive mother and a father of Polish descent who never speaks, he only reads the newspaper and shakes his head. He’s been eternally engaged to Giulia (Burt), with whom he spent his childhood and adolescence and eventually ends up marrying her. It looks like a happy and loving marriage, at least on the surface; Caruso loves his wife and works as a psychoanalyst in the midst of many absurd cases. However the crisis comes as sudden as a summer storm, because one unfortunate day Giulia disappears and asks for a divorce, for no apparent reason. She does not love him anymore - so it seems - and got engaged to Caruso’s patient (Edward), whom he had called a latent homosexual. Caruso is left alone with his lawyer friend (Petrocelli), gets drunk, is often arrested by the senior sergeant (Novelli) and carries on working. Caruso seems to forget about Giulia, and gets involved with other women when Giulia suddenly decides to come back to him, right on the day in which the divorce should be finalized. Caruso and Giulia become lovers, they see each other in the strangest places, especially in the female toilets of a cinema. Eventually, the two go back to live together again, because Edward realizes he is actually gay (although he wants to have sex for the first time with Caruso): however, the threat that Julia could leave remains.

Francesco Nuti faces the theme of abandonment with lightness but also with touches of pure poetry. A love that lasts a lifetime is suddenly challenged by an unexpected variable. The music by Giovanni Nuti is wonderful; the beautiful, poignant theme of Giulia, but even the epochal unconventional and irreverent Puppe a pera (Boobs like pears) flow together as the credits run at the end of the film. The film is full of gags halfway between the absurd and the surreal that argue in favor of the definition of grotesque comedy. There are many elements of farce and slapstick comedy as well as cartoon style, that does neither clash with the most delicate sequences nor with the beautiful Florentine photography that captures picturesque locations. The film has the ability to move from the more rambling and crazy farcical register to an atmosphere of sophisticated, almost sentimental comedy. The beginning is memorable because Nuti makes a quick history of Italy from 1959 to the seventies through comic strokes, following the stages of his romance with Giulia. The songs from the sixties give way to the singer and songwriters Gino Paoli, Claudio Baglioni and Riccardo Cocciante; youngsters play the spin bottle game, his father reads the left-wing newspaper L’Unità, he reads the adult magazine Le Ore and masturbates in the bathroom despite his mother’s disapproval. The small kiss that Nuti would like to give everyone when he is drunk is awesome: especially when it comes to senior sergeant Novelli who arrests him while ironically imitating Ruggero Perugini’s video message addressed to the serial killer known as the Monster of Florence. Caruso’s patients are elements of slapstick comedy at its purest state, silent movies’ pieces: the fake Marilyn Monroe, the twins, the black man who throws himself out the window, the snoring fool. His meeting with the crazy bartender (Frosali) outside his lawyer’s office results in a series of remarkable comic gags. Even the lawyer’s jokes are funny: ‘Mortadella is communist, salami is socialist, ham is democratic ... finocchiona (a special type of Tuscan salami) is radical’. The dialogues with the patient who steals his wife from him, played by Ricky Tognazzi who had already appeared in Nuti’s Son contento (I am glad, 1983), are great comical pieces: ‘Husband, television and slippers: they all suck...’. The child with the toy gun who threatens him while he hits him with a shovel, but also the fake shooting at the supermarket are two effective elements inspired by comics. The film encompasses other highlights: the surreal slow motion bathroom scene in which he tries to grip the gun, the drinking challenge with the barman, the odd lovers he meets to forget his wife, the meetings in while dressed as a woman, the lovemaking in an elevator, the pen that does not write at the time of signing the divorce papers, the slapping scene in Piazza del Duomo between Caruso and Burt. One can’t forget to mention the gay scene in which Nuti enters the women's bathroom, announcing among various winks, ‘I’m a faggot, I’m a faggot ...’.

Clarissa Burt (Philadelphia, 1959) is an American model, who was discovered by Francesco Nuti and with whom she had a brief romantic relationship and helped her to launch her career in the world of cinema. She has recently become an Italian citizen and -unfortunately- we have seen her appearing in many reality shows since then. Ricky Tognazzi is very good and he shows it even in such an unrewarding role. The two character actors Novello Novelli and Carlo Monni are indeed very funny. The future film director -and in this case screenwriter- Giovanni Veronesi plays a cameo in the role of an intellectual who has his glasses smashed in the library by an angry Nuti.

Roberto Cozzuol of Italian Film 1960-1990, the essential Facebook group dedicated to Italian cinema, recalls: ‘Giovanni Veronesi tells of how the process of script writing took place in Los Angeles, where the group moved to a villa paid by producers to find inspiration. Nuti wanted to make an absolutely comical film, the most fun ever, and by incorporating too much farce in it he got torn apart by the critics who obviously condemned his ideas of an easy laugh. While Piccioli (the producer) wanted to set up auditions the female role, Nuti was convinced that Clarissa Burt (his girlfriend at the time) was already the best possible choice. Nuti did not object to the auditions but finally succeeded in imposing Burt, which turned out perfect for the part. Pascoski’s son (‘Paskoskino’ called in the credits) is actually Margherita Nuti, Nuti’s nephew, who now recalls how when she was a little girl all her classmates used to ask her to sign their backpacks with the name of ‘Pascoskino’! The kissing scene between Ricky Tognazzi and Clarissa Burt must have been quite curious, as Nuti (who had just got together with Clarissa) was jealous of her and watched, but also for the actress Simona Izzo (who had just got together with Ricky and was dubbing Clarissa in the movie) was jealous of Ricky and watched her as well... Francesco Nuti would eventually take back to the big screen the character of the psychoanalyst with Caruso, zero in condotta - Caruso, zero marks in behavior (2001), his last film as a director. This however had nothing to do with Caruso Pascoski but it was rather a mock sequel, a mix of different characters which resulted in total failure of both public and critics.

Review. Paolo Mereghetti (a one star), ‘This film is very pretentious, it’s cheap little work, with a bad sense of humour, irritating and vulgar. The Tuscan comedian shows that he’s in bad shape while Ricky Tognazzi is far better.’ What did Francesco Nuti ever do to Mereghetti to be treated so badly? Were we all idiots, us, the eighties’ youth, going crazy about Nuti’s cinema? Above all, we are still are completely crazy since we still look these movies up, watch them and attempt to review them?

A better review comes from Pino Farinotti that gives it two stars and says: ‘The comedy is, like Nuti’s previous ones, weighed down by the Tuscan comedian’s narcisism. However, many gags are effective. Ricky Tognazzi is able to extricate himself with unexpected skill from the folds of a thankless role.’

Morando Morandini (two stars from the critics, three from the audience) says: ‘Away from the Ponzi’s protective direction, Nuti focuses his film on the uncertainty of relationships and the mystery of women, a planet to be explored. He also focuses on visual gags and mixes tones with the fury of a neurotic and narcissist acting but runs out of steam.’ In any case, this film had a great success with the audience.

To learn more about and get an objective view of Francesco Nuti and his works, we recommend Francesco Nuti - the true story of a great talent by Matteo Norcini (Ibiskos).

Translation by Amneris Di Cesare (supervised by Sabrina Macchi)

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Gordiano Lupi (Piombino, 1960). Editorial manager of Edizioni Il Foglio, he contributes to Turin’s newspaper La Stampa as a translator of Yoani Sánchez’s blog. He translated the novels of the Cuban author Torreguitart Ruiz and published a number of books on Cuba, cinema, and many other topics. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi.

He participated in some TV broadcasts such as Corrado Augias’s Cominciamo bene le storie, Luca Giurato’s Uno Mattina, Odeon TV series on the Italian serial killers, Rete Quattro La Commedia all’italiana, Monica Maggioni’s Speciale TG1 on Cuba and Yoani Sánchez, Dove TV series on Cuba. He guested on some Italian and Swiss radio broadcasts for his books and comments on the Cuban culture.

In 2012 he published a long chapter in El otro paredón, an essay on the Cuban situation, written with four authors of the Cuban exile, and issued in the USA with English and Spanish versions. His books received a large number of reviews and mentions. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi. E-mail address: lupi@infol.it

Catch as Catch Can (por Gordiano Lupi)

Weekly section on the critical engagement of cinema by Gordiano Lupi.

Catch as Catch Can

Director: Franco Indovina. Story and script: Tonino Guerra, Franco Indovina, Luigi Malerba. Photograph: Aldo Tonti. Setting: Marcello Malvestito. Music: Luis Enriquez Bacalov. Art director and costume designer: Pier Luigi Pizzi. Producer: Mario Cecchi Gori. Production: Fair Film (Rome). Length: 86’. Genre: Comedy. Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Martha Hyer, Gila Golam, Karin Skarreso, Massimo Serato, Carmelo Bene, Gigi Proietti, Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia, Mario Cecchi Gori, Aldo Tonti, Piero Vida.

Catch as Catch Can is one of the six films directed by Franco Indovina, born in Palermo (1932-1972). He has been Visconti’s theatre assistant, Antonioni’s, Rosi’s and De Sica’s assistant director, and has also been married to Princess Soraya’s, the former empress of Persia, whom he met during the production of his first film, the episode "Latin Lover", part of The Three Faces (1964). Indovina died when his creativity was at the top, being victim of a serious plane crash at Punta Raisi near Palermo airport, during which 115 persons lost their lives. The actress Lorenza Indovina is his daughter. Indovina made another four films: Menage Italian Style (1965), "The Oldest Profession" (episode The Prehistoric Era (1967), The Voyeur (1970) and Tre nel Mille (1971) and, as Roberto Poppi said: “he is a director whose characteristic is love for satire and grotesque”.

Lo Scatenato is a very original film, atypical in the Italian production of the Sixties and positively feels the effects of Tonino Guerra’s and Luigi Malerba’s original writing. Bob Chiaromonte (Gassman) is an actor who works in advertising and he goes mad because he feels harassed by animals. A dog piddles on his leg, a bull makes him fall into a river, some mice chew on a rope which held him hanging from an helicopter; he’s being tormented by birds defecating on him. Bob refuses to work in adverts with animals and is therefore fired. He finds work as a makeup artist, but a fly keeps bothering him: he tries to kill it but he’s not able to do it. He ends up making a lot of trouble instead. The most serious one is when he cuts a minister’s moustache off and then he tries to stick it back on his face during a televised political rally. The fly dies under unexpected circumstances, but his troubles don’t come to an end. His wife (Hyer) leaves him because she thinks that he has tried to kill her, while the police brands him a subversive because he said the word “mosca” (fly) on television. Bob ends up going insane and arguing with a chimpanzee at the zoo: the monkey has the better of him, escapes from the cage and leaves the man behind bars, waiting to be fed nuts by the children.

It’s a lovely film, out of time, full of 68’s pop culture, but still enjoyable, moving among historical references and a visual, ludicrous and slapstick humour. The director carries forward a Freudian subject, very similar to Woody Allen’s ones, very unusual for an Italian comedy. The comic register continually varies between classical and sophisticated comedy to coarsest farce. Consequently the ups and downs cause both a certain lack of continuity and a sense of fragmentation in the movie. Though being a very intellectual film, it is recommended for everybody. Gassman plays in a wonderful way, in a role suiting his comic side, as mattatore (star performer), a year after Monicelli’s Brancaleone’s Army (1966) and in the same season as Dino Risi’s The Tiger and the Pussycat (1967). The wife’s role is played by the sensual American actress Marta Hyer, admired by the viewers in a very sexy bathing suit, at that time presented as “the answer to Grace Kelly from Universal”. Other characters include: Carmelo Bene (the priest), Massimo Serato (the policeman), Claudio Gora (the minister without a moustache), Gigi Proietti (the makeup artist), even the director of photography Aldo Tonti (the director), and the producer Cecchi Gori (the advertiser).

Review. Morando Morandini on line (two stars for critics, one for the audience): “Inspired by Tonino Guerra’s charming subject, suitable to Vittorio Gassman’s versatile comic and ludicrous side, Franco Indovina has managed to produce an unusual comedy, albeit too fragmented and unable to focus the Freudian themes treating the phobias and the neurosis caused by mass media. From a commercial point of view, a total flop”. Pino Farinotti (two stars): “A not completely successful apologue, in spite of the excellent cast”. Paolo Mereghetti (two stars): “An intellectual comedy which seems almost a Freudian study on persecutory pathology. Gassman denigrates himself in a very persuasive way, but he sometimes overdoes it trying to find the comic side of the situation. For that matter, we can notice a certain discontinuity in the script, written by six hands: Luigi Malerba, Tonino Guerra and Franco Indovina”.

Translation by Paola Roveda (supervised by Sabrina Macchi)

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Gordiano Lupi (Piombino, 1960). Editorial manager of Edizioni Il Foglio, he contributes to Turin’s newspaper La Stampa as a translator of Yoani Sánchez’s blog. He translated the novels of the Cuban author Torreguitart Ruiz and published a number of books on Cuba, cinema, and many other topics. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi.

He participated in some TV broadcasts such as Corrado Augias’s Cominciamo bene le storie, Luca Giurato’s Uno Mattina, Odeon TV series on the Italian serial killers, Rete Quattro La Commedia all’italiana, Monica Maggioni’s Speciale TG1 on Cuba and Yoani Sánchez, Dove TV series on Cuba. He guested on some Italian and Swiss radio broadcasts for his books and comments on the Cuban culture.

In 2012 he published a long chapter in El otro paredón, an essay on the Cuban situation, written with four authors of the Cuban exile, and issued in the USA with English and Spanish versions. His books received a large number of reviews and mentions. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi. E-mail address: lupi@infol.it

The referee (por Gordiano Lupi)

Weekly section on the critical engagement of cinema by Gordiano Lupi.

All I know about life I learned from football (Albert Camus), is the opening sentence in the newcomer Paolo Zucca’s unusual, original and grotesque movie that has captivated the critics at the Venice Film Festival. For once the audience agrees, because the director - helped by expert screenwriter Barbara Alberti - builds an hour and a half narration without the slightest drop of tone. L’arbitro (The referee) depicts two parallel stories: one about an experienced referee who wants to referee the European Championship’s final and for this purpose, he seeks to please one of FIFA’s managers n charge of selecting referees for official matches; the other is about two sardinian teams fighting for supremacy in the 3rd league while having to deal with a rather unfair referee. In the end the two stories merge: the international referee is sent to Sardinia as a punishment to referee the decisive match between the two rival teams. He will unintentionally score the decider and will be carried in triumph along the streets of the village.

L’arbitro (The referee)‘s photography is an intense black and white, telling Sardinia by pictures, customs and traditions, tribal challenges, struggling love stories, using football as a catalyst of passions and rivalries. The general tone is comic - grotesque, but not lacking realism when the director emphasizes the difference between those who play with passion and those who make sport the reason for living.

The characters are well played by very convincing actors: Stefano Accorsi is back, his handsome physique is in utter contrast with his role of arrogant referee, who is willing to do anything in order to make a career. Marco Messeri is a rfraudolent FIFA manager, Francesco Pannofino is a corrupt referee with a name that says it all (Mureno), Benito Urgu is the blind coach of the amateur team, Geppi Cucciari is the coach’s daughter, in love with Jacopo Cullin, Matzutzi from Argentina, leading the team at the top.

Paolo Zucca even quotes Fellini and the immortal sequence in Amarcord with Ciccio Ingrassia who climbs a tree and screams: I want a woman! Everything is identical to the original, only Cullin is not screaming, but makes it clear that if the coach’s daughter will not go to the movies with him, he won’t play. There are quotes from the Italian western genre, with some football sequences played as challenges between gangs of gunmen, filmed among those Sardinian canyons that once were spaghetti western’s favourite sets. The soundtrack is intriguing, based on pieces of waltz, tango and traditional songs such as Vivere e La Morena. Grotesque ideas, such as having the blind coach play a match and have a free kick (in the final scene he actually scores a spectacular goal), but also portraying tribal vendettas between teammates that in everyday life hate each other because of border conflicts. The punishment for the corrupt referee who finds himself managing a 3rd category match with an old woman who challenges his decisions hitting him with her umbrella is also a rather grotesque scene. Stefano Accorsi reminds us of Lando Buzzanca, who plays the same role in an eponymous film directed in 1974 by Luigi Filippo D'Amico, in some sequences on the pitch when he is enacting a weird dance. In certain situations, the use of dialect is acceptable, giving the scene more realism, but the use of subtitles would be more appropriate. This is a funny movie, which makes up for the lack of original screenplays and positive twists which are much needed in Italian cinema at the moment.

Translation by Silvia Accorrà (edited by Sabrina Macchi)

Director: Paolo Zucca. Subject: Paolo Zucca. Screenplay: Paolo Zucca, Barbara Alberti. Photography: Patrick Patrizi. Editing: Sarah Mc Teigue, Walter Fasano. Music: Andrea Guerra. Costumes: Stefania Grilli. Scenography: Peter Rais, Marianna Sciveres, Margarita Tambornino. Sound-Camera: Piero Fancellu. Producer: Amedeo Pagani. Co-producers: Daniel Burman, Diego Dubcovsky. Executive Producer: Jimena Blanco. General organization: Gianluca Arcopinto, Cesare Apolito. Genre: Comedy. Black and White. Songs: Vivere (Cesare Andrea Bixio), La Morena, Danzarin, Fantasie pour piano et clarinette (Gioacchino Rossini), Ricordi d’amore (Teo Usuelli), Monia (Renato Soglia). Contribution: Sardinia, Rai Cinema, Sardinia Film Commission, Province of Cagliari. Location: Seneghe, Milis, Bonarcado, Cagliari, Oristano, Bari (Stadio San Nicola). Production companies: Classic srl (Italy) - Bd Cine srl (Argentina). Distribution: Lucky Red. Presented at the Venice Film Festival, Giornate degli Autori. Actors: Stefano Accorsi (Cruciani), Geppi Cucciari (Miranda), Jacopo Cullin (Matzutzi), Alessio Di Clemente (Brai), Marco Messeri (Candido), Grégoire Oestermann, Benito Urgu (Prospero), Franco Fais (Franco), Quirico Manunza (Quirico), Marco Cadau (Pietro), Andrés Gioeni e Gustavo De Filpo (guardalinee Cruciani), Francesco Pannofino (Mureno), Salvetto Pes, Daniel Pinna, Mario Ruggiu, Paolo Floris, Simone Murgia, Tore Pinna, Mattia Galvani, Zakaria Chafaoui, Alessandro Biolla, Claudio Mura, Massimo Pinna, Giorgio Franco Zucca.

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Gordiano Lupi (Piombino, 1960). Editorial manager of Edizioni Il Foglio, he contributes to Turin’s newspaper La Stampa as a translator of Yoani Sánchez’s blog. He translated the novels of the Cuban author Torreguitart Ruiz and published a number of books on Cuba, cinema, and many other topics. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi.

He participated in some TV broadcasts such as Corrado Augias’s Cominciamo bene le storie, Luca Giurato’s Uno Mattina, Odeon TV series on the Italian serial killers, Rete Quattro La Commedia all’italiana, Monica Maggioni’s Speciale TG1 on Cuba and Yoani Sánchez, Dove TV series on Cuba. He guested on some Italian and Swiss radio broadcasts for his books and comments on the Cuban culture.

In 2012 he published a long chapter in El otro paredón, an essay on the Cuban situation, written with four authors of the Cuban exile, and issued in the USA with English and Spanish versions. His books received a large number of reviews and mentions. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi. E-mail address: lupi@infol.it

La califfa (por Gordiano Lupi)

 Weekly section on the critical engagement of cinema by Gordiano Lupi.

 

La califfa (The Lady Caliph) is Alberto Bevilacqua’s first film. It is based on the director’s third book, published in 1964, a huge bestseller that anticipated his 1966 Campiello Prize winning novel Questa specie di amore (This Kind of Love). The sensual Romy Schneider has the leading role as Irene Corsini, la califfa, the widow of a workman killed by the police. She is introduced with an intense long-sequence shot that will be repeated in the tragic final scene. Ugo Tognazzi plays the sympathetic Doberdò, an entrepreneur bewitched by the fierce working-class lady. For love’s sake he will try to be sympathetic towards the workers’ needs and to solve the problems in his factory.

La califfa is set in Parma, Bevilacqua’s birthplace, a city that the author will portray in short stories, novels, poems and films. Irene Corsini, a woman strengthened by her own sorrow, is the leader of a protest movement in Doberdò’s factory, but eventually she falls in love with the entrepreneur. Next to her, he discovers a new reality, and sees a more humane way to make business. However, he will not be able to convince his fellow industrialists, who will kill him in the final scene, and will throw his body by the side of the factory’s wall. It’s a new bloodshed for Irene, a new wound in her life.

Being on a rather low production budget meant that Bevilacqua was forced to film only the second half of his novel, and often had to use the same scenes for a number of dream sequences. Moreover, he also omitted some characters and focussed the action only on the protagonists. Many dialogues, some of the utmost importance to understand the relationship between Doberdò and Irene, were also dismissed. Even the final sequence is different from the book - that is, it’s more dramatic - as the novel ends with the entrepreneur’s death by natural causes. The film locations are Parma, Spoleto, Terni, Colleferro, and Cesano di Roma. Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack is amazing. It often features a somewhat western theme, as a comment of the scenes related to the Wild West duels or showdowns, so typical of that film genre. Roberto Gerardi’s soft pastel tone photography is excellent. At his first film direction, Bevilacqua is well acquainted with the long sequence shots, but exceedingly prone to the zooming technique - one of the evils of that filming era. However, his screenplay is poetic enough to support the hyperrealistic scenes of this metaphoric and didactic film. The actors are extraordinary: Ugo Tognazzi is at his best in embodying the entrepreneur, a former country boy who, because of love, changes his pragmatic approach to life by romantically challenging the establishment. Tognazzi is no stranger to the magnate or upper class member roles, but in this film Bevilacqua provides him with a number of poetic one-liners: ‘Today the power needs neither heroes nor lions. It only needs poets’, he says. And, talking about his poor youth: ‘I went away just not to see that damp stain over my head any more’. Romy Schneider is upsettingly beautiful in her astonishing close-ups during the police charge and the bloodshed riot scenes. Irene’s role – a strong woman, ready to run all risks – is particularly suitable for her own personality. Bevilacqua is very good at narrating the feminine soul and at composing unusual portraits of over-the-top women. Among the character actors Gigi Ballista is at ease playing the businessman, a role he will repeat over and over again in the Italian sexy comedies; Stefano Satta Flores plays a workman just for one sequence; Gigi Reder (the future Ragionier Filini of the Fantozzi film saga) plays a subservient waiter; Giancarlo Prete (the science fiction action film bodybuilder) plays the califfa’s exploited lover; Massimo Serato plays the magnate who commits suicide.

Bevilacqua portrays the Italian society at the end of the 60’s, with its aggressive tycoons, the closing of factories, the sit ins by workmen demanding more respect for their work. We see police charging, industrialists committing suicide after going bankrupt, protests in the squares. Along with the description of the social environments, we have a merciless analysis of the bourgeois marriage, with fading away passions and infidelity. This criticism doesn’t even spare the generational contrast between fathers and sons. ‘If a father and a son ran away together to reach a nonspecific goal, nothing would probably happen’, Tognazzi says. The ‘master’s speeches’ addressed to his workmen are intense, although a bit pompous and redundant, as well as the class struggle scenes, which are sometimes too stylized. The representation of the factory as a pagan divinity, where workers pay their daily homage before the ‘Production Altar’, is striking. To be remembered are some dreamlike sequences: the flower blocking the machinery of the factory, the Califfa locking the master in his own room, only to let him die alone with his millions… The erotic scenes are only suggestive, even though the two protagonists are credible and convincing. Romy Schneider’s toned body has a powerful screen presence in her full-figured nude scenes. Although marked by an exceedingly radical inspiration, this film stands as a good product of its own era and should be watched in the correct historical perspective. The rebel working-class lady and the entrepreneur share the same bravery, the same humble origin, the same faith in a project, and the same illusion of changing the world. However, the harsh reality will destroy their dreams.

Reviews. Morando Morandini (three stars from both critics and the audience): ‘The real surprise of this social comedy is Ugo Tognazzi’s outstanding versatility. He can master his reactions and tones admirably. Romy Schneider is less convincing as a working-class member. Nevertheless, this is the best product among the works of Bevilacqua from Parma’. This judgment is hard to accept, particularly for its conclusions, for the doubts on Schneider’s acting performance, and for its definition of a dramatic and hyperrealistic film like that as a comedy. Paolo Mereghetti (one stars) tears the film completely apart: ‘Bevilacqua’s first film, taken from his novel of the same title, is a portrait of a young lady, but it loses its way among commonplace and groundless references to the social tensions of the era’. Pino Farinotti gives the film three stars: despite the lack of critical analysis, his value judgment is largely sharable.

Translation by Michele Curatolo (supervised by Sabrina Macchi)

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Gordiano Lupi (Piombino, 1960). Editorial manager of Edizioni Il Foglio, he contributes to Turin’s newspaper La Stampa as a translator of Yoani Sánchez’s blog. He translated the novels of the Cuban author Torreguitart Ruiz and published a number of books on Cuba, cinema, and many other topics. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi.

He participated in some TV broadcasts such as Corrado Augias’s Cominciamo bene le storie, Luca Giurato’s Uno Mattina, Odeon TV series on the Italian serial killers, Rete Quattro La Commedia all’italiana, Monica Maggioni’s Speciale TG1 on Cuba and Yoani Sánchez, Dove TV series on Cuba. He guested on some Italian and Swiss radio broadcasts for his books and comments on the Cuban culture.

In 2012 he published a long chapter in El otro paredón, an essay on the Cuban situation, written with four authors of the Cuban exile, and issued in the USA with English and Spanish versions. His books received a large number of reviews and mentions. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi. E-mail address: lupi@infol.it

The Book Thief (por Gordiano Lupi)

Weekly section on the critical engagement of cinema by Gordiano Lupi.

The Book Thief is an American “kolossal” costing 19 million and distributed worldwide with overall takings of almost 80 million. In Italy is was not as huge a success, where it took in about two million euro, and the awards it received were not that gratifying. Director Brian Percival had to settle for a few accolades, while on Oscar night only John Williams ran away with a nomination for his extraordinary soundtrack. The film was shot in Germany, in the various locations where the action takes place (Berlin, Görlitz, Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam), enjoying a superb and dramatic reconstruction and a credible historical setting. The film adaptation of the international bestseller by Markus Zusak,The book thief, written in 2005 and translated worldwide, is proof that good stories never end. The author, screenwriter and director managed to write an exciting and original movie based on the much exploited subject of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. The book thief is set during World War II; the protagonist of the story is Liesel, a little girl abandoned by her mother and adopted by Hans and Rosa Huberman after her younger brother’s death. Liesel can neither read nor write, but soon fills the gap thanks to her adoptive father, and becomes a bookworm. The film follows the deep friendship which is born and develops between Liesel and the fair-haired Rudy, a promising athlete who falls for her from the very first moment. The outbreak of war reveals the full horror of the Nazi ideology with squads organizing the burning of books on bonfires followed by the persecution of Jews and communists. Liesel’s family risk everything by hiding a young Jew, Max, who develops a lifelong, fraternal friendship with her. Max will be the one to spark Lisa's love of reading and writing and to stimulate her creativity. The tragic ending is nonetheless drawn lightly by the director, without melodramatic turns and using the technique of Death as the narrator. Death accompanies the audience from the first (awesome) sequences of long shots in the movie. The book thief is a flawless film. It is well scripted and shot using colours that create a sense of the grace of yesteryear. It is edited with quick scenes and the performances of Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson are extraordinary. There are many differences with the novel; a real coming of age story of a young writer narrated by Death. But this is to be expected given the difference in language between cinema and literature. Director Percival and screenwriter Petroni favour the spectacular side, making it even more credible thanks to the wonderful special effects which portray the dark times of the bombings over Berlin.

The book thief shows that it is possible to shoot a “kolossal”, money-making movie, instead of the same old blockbuster starring mechanical monsters, superheroes or monkeys out to conquer the world. Recommended.

Translation by Silvia Accorrà (edited by Ester Tossi)

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Gordiano Lupi (Piombino, 1960). Editorial manager of Edizioni Il Foglio, he contributes to Turin’s newspaper La Stampa as a translator of Yoani Sánchez’s blog. He translated the novels of the Cuban author Torreguitart Ruiz and published a number of books on Cuba, cinema, and many other topics. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi.

He participated in some TV broadcasts such as Corrado Augias’s Cominciamo bene le storie, Luca Giurato’s Uno Mattina, Odeon TV series on the Italian serial killers, Rete Quattro La Commedia all’italiana, Monica Maggioni’s Speciale TG1 on Cuba and Yoani Sánchez, Dove TV series on Cuba. He guested on some Italian and Swiss radio broadcasts for his books and comments on the Cuban culture.

In 2012 he published a long chapter in El otro paredón, an essay on the Cuban situation, written with four authors of the Cuban exile, and issued in the USA with English and Spanish versions. His books received a large number of reviews and mentions. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi. E-mail address: lupi@infol.it

Stregati (by Gordiano Lupi)

Weekly section on the critical engagement of cinema by Gordiano Lupi.

Stregati is the third film by director Francesco Nuti, after Casablanca (1985) and Tutta colpa del Paradiso (It’s all Heaven’s fault) (1985 ), starring Ornella Muti, which can be considered his best work. The story can easily be told in a few words. Lorenzo (Nuti ) is a dj who lives in the dockland area of Genoa, where he hosts a night time radio programme at Radio Strega. He lives for the day, along with his father (Novelli) - manager of a porn cinema - and two other pranksters friends (Alex and Remo 40), between jokes, light heartedness and easy women. He also has a mistress, Clara (Pepe), who breaks up the monotony of his life. The film Is a sort of a Genoese version of Amici miei (My friends) it tells the night time adventures of the four pranksters, however, as soon as the beautiful Anna (Muti) appears, the film becomes a romantic comedy. Lorenzo meets Anna on a rainy night, While driving his friend Remo’s cab: they end up sleeping together and he feels attracted to her in a way he has never felt before.. The problem is that Anna is going to be married the next day, she has her white wedding dress in a suitcase and a train is waiting for her at the station to take her to Verona. The two begin an intense relationship, Anna misses the train twice, makes love to Lorenzo once more, but in the end she is bound toward her destiny. There is a surprise ending. After a few days Anna is back, on a rainy night, because she decided to stay with Lorenzo and share his bizarre and incoherent life.

Stregati (Bewitched) had to be called Strega (Witch), according to rumours, the very same screenwriter, Vincenzo Cerami, said that the movie took an unexpected turn. The two main actors actually fell in love on set, which meant that the film became a romantic comedy. The film’s plot is less solid and engineered than the previous Tutta colpa del Paradiso, but it’s redeemed by its intense Genoese night photography ( Ruzzolini ) and a poignant and evocative soundtrack (Giovanni Nuti). The film was awarded: Silver Ribbon for Best soundtrack, nominations for the David di Donatello for Best Original Song (Rose), four ‘Ciak’ Gold nominations (best film, actor, actress and photography). The location is very accurate: Genoa is deserted at night and rather amazing, the docks, the central areas, the station (although it is Florence’s Station), The film is shot in the pouring rain, taking glimpses of intense sunrises and suggestive marine sunsets. Many images from the film remain unforgettable: Ornella Muti wearing the wedding dress, a beautiful shot of Nuti with Genoa’s view behind him, intense close-ups of the beautiful actress and glimpses of the deserted city, in a surreal night. The joke played by Nuti on his father while he is cleaning the room of the porn cinema is comical horror level and with a good crescendo in terms of tension. The sentimental part is not boring, even though some shots are too diluted and the sex scenes are a bit repetitive. Nevertheless, the film has a good screenplay, the dialogue is excellent, the soundtrack is good, the photography is rather intense and the acting is never over the top. Francesco Nuti was promoted to director with flying colours, because of his ability to handle the camera. Ornella Muti is a beautiful and sensual actress, whose presence alone makes the set shine and whose eyes radiate a ‘special light’. Some are wondering whether that light is an expression of her much talked about love for Nuti.

Reviews:

Paolo Mereghetti (one star): “In his second film, he turnes out to be more an author than a director. He recites quotes like those one finds wrapped around the Baci chocolates, and looks for the most poetic features of the city at night, which reminds one of Visconti’s ‘Le Notti Bianche’. What annoys one the most is neither Nuti’s ambitious plan to turn this film into something more than a comedy nor the weakness of the plot, but rather Nuti’s narcissism. Nuti the director seems to contemplate and admire Nuti the actor, while assuming that the viewer should agree with him.” I would rather ignore this false and mean review, which is unecessarily spiteful and light years away from the film. (Not to mention the fact that Merenghetti wrongly refers to this film as Nuti's second, when it is actually his third one).

Morando Morandini (two stars from the critics, three stars from the audience): “Heartbreaking and a bit stupid on the background of a wintery Genoa as beautifully suggested; it is a tribute to Cinema and Night. There is some disconnection, an unlikely happy ending I completely share his views aside from describing the flm as 'stupid'. Gives it two stars but does not provide his reasons for it. In our opinion, the film is worth three stars, the only flaw lies in the fragmentation and in some shots which are too diluted.

One must say a few words about Francesco Nuti ( Prato, 1955). Although in order to learn more about the unfortunate actor-director we recommend the wonderful book edited by Matteo Norcini and Stefano Bucci “Francesco Nuti – La vera storia di un grande talento (The true story of a great talent, Ibiskos, 2009). This book avenges too many injustices and criticisms made against him. Nuti started his career as an actor in the comic trio I Giancattivi, created by Alessandro Benvenuti and Athina Cenci. His first starring role is in the surreal A Ovest di Paperino (To the West of Donald Duck, 1982), directed by Benvenuti. After the experience of cabaret and television with the group, Nuti began his solo career and starred in a number of comedies written by Maurizio Ponzi, which were hugely successful among young people but were torn to pieces by the critics. Among his first appearances, Madonna che silenzio c’è stasera (Holy Mary What a Silent Night, 1982), Io, Chiara e lo Scuro (I, Clare and the Dark, 1983), Son contento (I'm Happy, 1984). Nuti made his directorial debut in 1985 with Casablanca, Casablanca, and, despite the critics’ negative reviews, continued to be very successful with Tutta colpa del Paradiso (It’s All Paradise’s Fault,1985), Stregati (Bewitched, 1986), Caruso Paskoski di padre polacco (Caruso Paskoski of Polish father,1988),Willy Signori e vengo da lontano (I’m Willy Signori and I Come from Far Away, 1989), Donne con le gonne (Women in Skirts,1991). The blatant failure came with Occhio Pinocchio (1994) which was completely misunderstood by the viewers, and continued with Mr. Quindicipalle (1998), which starred Sabrina Ferilli. The situation worsened furthermore with Io amo Andrea (I Love Andrea, 2000) and Caruso Zero in condotta (Caruso, Zero for Misbehaving, 2001). The last two films were actually produced by Nuti himself, who had to face that times had changed and the reality of Italian cinema was increasingly difficult to break through. His attempt to Revive a particular 80s’ movies genre is unsuccessful. His last cinematographic attempt as an actor was in the thriller Concorso di colpa (Contributory Negligence, 2005) by Claudio Fragasso, which a few have seen. Nuti did not give in, despite serious health problems from which only few people have actually seen, and announced plans for a new film: Olga e i fratellastri Billi (Olga and Billi brothers-in-law), with Sabrina Ferilli and Isabella Ferrari, which all came down to nothing in the end. On September 3rd 2006 he fell into a coma due to a brain hemorrhage following an accident at home, was hospitalized, and after undergoing surgery began a process of rehabilitation. Francesco Nuti made some recovery, but is turned into a shadow of himself; consequently, the Tv used this opportunity to display idiocy and insensitivity when covering Nuti’s story. Fortunately, his brother Giovanni and his former life partner Annamaria Malipiero (mother of his daughter Ginevra) lovingly took care of him. Matteo Norcini did justice to Nuti by publishing a monumental book, a must read in order to understand the path followed by the great Tuscan artist. While Nuti began to write poetry, Giovanni Veronesi began working on a project aimed at introducing the best films of Nuti to the public. In 2009, the National Film Archive dedicated a retrospective to the director from Prato. A documentary was also released: Francesco Nuti… e vengo da lontano (Francesco Nuti... and I come from far away) (2010), presented at the Rome Film Festival. The music video Olga tu mi fai morir (Olga you make me die) (2013), features his last ever work, a song written with his brother Giovanni. Nuti was also a successful singer (Puppe a pera, Sarà per te...) and had taken part in some editions of the The Sanremo Italian Song Festival. The critic Roberto Pioppi could produce some rather constructive comments, which went way beyond Mereghetti’s nonsense: “Nuti’s comedies are far from light entertainment, they are thought through. They highlight his skills as an actor and director who is inclined towards comic melancholy, romantic and surreal at the same time, yet ready to perceive some aspect of modern Italian society...” We grieve over the fact that now Nuti is silent, suffering, unable to communicate his inner thoughts. It saddens us because we are 80s’ youths, who spent many happy and carefree moments in his company. I remember being in love for the first time while watching Tutta colpa del Paradiso. Thank you Francesco.

Director: Francesco Nuti. Story and Screenplay: Francesco Nuti, Vincenzo Cerami, Giovanni Veronesi. Photography: Giuseppe Ruzzolini. Soundtrack: Giovanni Nuti. Production: Gianfranco Piccioni. Distribution: Columbia. Duration: 100 '.Genre: Sentimental comedy. Cast: Francesco Nuti Ornella Muti, Novello Novelli, Alex Partexano, Sergio Solli, Mirta Pepe, Giovanni Nuti. Foreign Titles: Hexerei (Germany), Bewitched (English-speaking market), Ensorcèles (French-speaking market), Embrujados (Hispanic market).

Translation by Silvia Accorrà (supervised by Sabrina Macchi)

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Gordiano Lupi (Piombino, 1960). Editorial manager of Edizioni Il Foglio, he contributes to Turin’s newspaper La Stampa as a translator of Yoani Sánchez’s blog. He translated the novels of the Cuban author Torreguitart Ruiz and published a number of books on Cuba, cinema, and many other topics. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi.

He participated in some TV broadcasts such as Corrado Augias’s Cominciamo bene le storie, Luca Giurato’s Uno Mattina, Odeon TV series on the Italian serial killers, Rete Quattro La Commedia all’italiana, Monica Maggioni’s Speciale TG1 on Cuba and Yoani Sánchez, Dove TV series on Cuba. He guested on some Italian and Swiss radio broadcasts for his books and comments on the Cuban culture.

In 2012 he published a long chapter in El otro paredón, an essay on the Cuban situation, written with four authors of the Cuban exile, and issued in the USA with English and Spanish versions. His books received a large number of reviews and mentions. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi. E-mail address: lupi@infol.it

Ragazza di Bube (by Gordiano Lupi)

Weekly section on the critical engagement of cinema by Gordiano Lupi.

 

Luigi Comenicini shot one of his main movies without betraying the inner meaning of Carlo Cassola’s novel (Premio Strega in 1960), even if its plot is simplified for the screen. This movie is well scripted by Marcello Fondato.

The story takes place at the end of the Second World War, between 1944 and 1946: the liberation of Italy by the Allies, the referendum between the Monarchy and the Republic, the first years of normalization.

The character of Mara (Cardinale) is really true to the book: she is a nervous teenager aged sixteen, while Bube (Chakiris) is a nineteen-year-old partisan, as described by Cassola. They fall in love when Bube visits Mara’s father at their home. Bube kills a marshal during a partisan action and this murder causes him many troubles, and he is forced to emigrate. Thanks to the Communist Party, he escapes to Yugoslavia, but after the proclamation of the Republic, he is expatriated and stands trial. He gets a fourteen-year sentence. Mara understands she is his last hope and decides to wait for him. Mara is a typical Cassola woman, apparently weak, but actually a really strong, determined girl, who is the mainstay of the couple. She gives up a possible love story with Stefano (Michel)so as not to leave Bube to his fate, when everyone does, even the Party.

The set in Colline Pisane, Colle, San Donato, Volterra, Val d’Elsa and Saline railway station is excellent. The director and the art director have ably recreated a very realistic Italyas it was when just liberatedby the Allies.

It is a dramatic film tinged with neo-realism, the actors really get into their parts, especially Claudia Cardinale, who is amazing. She wins an Italian award, Nastro d’Argento, because her characterization of Mara is excellent. I think it satisfied even Cassola, who has created memorable female characters. Mara moves from being a little girl in love, spoilt and stubborn, to being a woman, who decides to sacrifices her life for a man. The skill of the director and the scriptwriter is giving a meaning and justifying the change caused by adulthood and events that change life.

Cassola talks about the partisan war, he doesn’t have moral opinions, but tells a story like many others of that sad time. “The fault is only of the war and the fascists. You can’t judge some things as if nothing had happened”, a character says. Bube: “All the fascists have to be killed!”. Mara doesn’t comment on that: she isn’t interested in politics, like aperfect Cassola woman, some things are for men, she waits, she suffers, she hopes and finally she sacrifices herself.

The final sequence at the Saline station, when she meets Stefano, who is married, after several years, is really touching. Mara has no regrets, because she has followed her heart.

The cinema quotes are really important, the crowded cinemas auditoriums reconstructed by the director while watching Robin Hood and Waterloo Bridge. Cinema and dancing are the only two amusements in a poor Italy after the war. The popular trattorie, the cafes with little food and drink and the little shops, which sell poor cheap things, are perfect.

Volterra and its countryside are immortalized in black and white by Gianni di Venanzo. The vintage music by Carlo Rustichelli is in tune with the script. A little masterpiece.

The character of Mara is inspired by the true story of Nada Giorgi, who died in May 2012 at the age of 85, who has never agreed with the reconstruction by Cassola. Massimo Biagioni tells her real story in his book Nada, la ragazza di Bube (Polistampa, Florence), who had been true to her husband all her life, fighting against Cassola’s fantasies to clear his reputation. Nada has always proclaimed Bube’s innocence (Renato Ciandri, not Arturo Cappellini) in that crime, as she had always denied having other love stories. These discrepancies occurwhen you want to fictionalize reality…

Critical anthology. Pino Farinotti gives three stars. Morando Morandini two and a half (three by the audience, and the returns come close to one billion lire): “A true version of Cassola’s novel. The representatives of extremism (Mara’s father, Bube’s fellows) are in the background, like in the novel, and like the historical background. Even if Claudia Cardinale doesn’t talk and walk like a Tuscan (Mario Soldati says), she isn’t dubbed in the end and is believable, tender and docile. The black and white film by Gianni di Venannzo (1920-1966) is beautiful”.

Even Paolo Mareghetti gives two stars and a half: “Marcello Fondato adapts Cassola’s bestseller and Comenicini, after Everybody Go Home [Tutti a casa], once again analyses a turbulent time of Italian history. In those days the discussions caused by the novel fell on the film: the sentimental and intimist perspective seemed to belittle the still living myth of the Resistance. Anyway, Comenicini doesn’t cover ideology, but follows the growth and development of two simple souls with melodramatic hints, overcome by a bigger story than them. Claudia Cardinale, who isn’t dubbed, is really good. The photography by Gianni Di Venanzo is audacious”.

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Direction: Luigi Comencini. Story: Carlo Cassola. Script: Luigi Comencini, Marcello Fondato. Photography: Gianni Di Venanzo. Editing: Nino Baragli. Music: Carlo Rustichelli. Set designing:Piero Gherardi. Producer: Franco Cristaldi for Vides Lux Film and Lux France. Studio: Lux Ultra Vides (Italy), Compagnie Cinematographique de France S.A. (France). Distribution: Lux Film.Cast: Claudia Cardinale, George Chakiris, Marc Michel, Dany París, Emilio Esposito, Carla Calò (dubbed by Vanna Polverosi), Monique Vita, Mario Lupi, Pierluigi Catocci, Ugo Chiti, Bruno Scipioni, Gabriella Giorgelli. Awards: David di Donatello (1964) Best Producer. Nastro d’Argento (1965) Best Outstanding Actress (Claudia Cardinale).

Translation by Emma Lenzi (edited by Irene Tossi)

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Gordiano Lupi (Piombino, 1960). Editorial manager of Edizioni Il Foglio, he contributes to Turin’s newspaper La Stampa as a translator of Yoani Sánchez’s blog. He translated the novels of the Cuban author Torreguitart Ruiz and published a number of books on Cuba, cinema, and many other topics. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi.

He participated in some TV broadcasts such as Corrado Augias’s Cominciamo bene le storie, Luca Giurato’s Uno Mattina, Odeon TV series on the Italian serial killers, Rete Quattro La Commedia all’italiana, Monica Maggioni’s Speciale TG1 on Cuba and Yoani Sánchez, Dove TV series on Cuba. He guested on some Italian and Swiss radio broadcasts for his books and comments on the Cuban culture.

In 2012 he published a long chapter in El otro paredón, an essay on the Cuban situation, written with four authors of the Cuban exile, and issued in the USA with English and Spanish versions. His books received a large number of reviews and mentions. See the full list at www.infol.it/lupi. E-mail address: lupi@infol.it.