I recommend this film, co-written and directed by Paolo Virzi. It’s a believable, and often moving story–albeit a familiar (and maybe for some, tiresome) one. A doll-faced hick moves to the big city with her family. As she struggle to fit in, to make friends and adjust, there are big disappointments and small triumphs, blah blah blah. Such a familiar tale is bound to be tedious unless we truly care about the characters. And in this film, we do–or I did, anyway. I cared not only about Caterina, but her father. And, in a way, the film could also be titled Caterina’s Father in the Big City, or Giancarlo in the Big City.
You see, Giancarlo is the one who has difficulty adjusting. Caterina (bravely? naively?) perseveres as she absorbs the intense energy of clashing cliques (the offspring of well-to-do right-wing politicians versus the offspring of bourgeois bohemians–all of them overprivileged and demanding). But Giancarlo agonizes. Rome tortures him. He begins with high hopes: his daughter will attend the school he attended in his youth, he will take a teaching position in the same school and, in time, will make all the proper connections and improve his station in life. Rome owes him! After years of teaching in a small school in the rural village of Montalto, Rome owes him!
I think, because of this, the far more complex story is Giancarlo’s. And, frankly, I don’t know what to make of it. I know so little of Italy’s history and its politics. It’s message seems clear enough: the communists and the fascists are, in a sense, one in the same. They complement each other, complete each other, even bail each other out. This is not lost on Giancarlo, who is hopeless (embarrassingly so) in his efforts to impress. Not only is he a fool, he is horribly cruel. So what, then, is this film saying? Are the filmmakers unable to be frank about corruption and moral decay in Rome without, at the same time, mocking and pathologizing one its victims? The leftists are as ugly as the fascists–but Giancarlo is ugly as well. The way he demeans his wife goes far beyond mere cruelty. And although his criticism of society may be right on target, it is corrupted by selfishness, boorishness, and contempt. This is why we cringe when he disgraces himself on national television.
There are many delightful moments in this film, though. Alice Teghli’s performance (as Caterina) is wonderful. In fact, all the performances are wonderful (except the boy who plays Edward, the sensitive boy next door). Like Gomorra, which I wrote about a few weeks ago, this is a fascinating glimpse of Italian life. I’d be interested in hearing from Gio about either film, but I recommend it to everyone. I’d like to write more about it.
bumped it up my queue, john. thanks for the rec. i usually avoid italian movies like the plague (save the soccer joke, ‘nab). i have two copies of Gomorrah, the book, one in english and one in italian. the moment i decide which one to read i’ll read it, then watch the movie. i might go directly to the movie. why do you watch italian cinema, john?
Why do I watch Italian cinema? I don’t usually. But recently there have been a few events on campus related to Italian cinema. The film program and the Italian program brought Peter Bondanella to give a talk on the future of Italian cinema, and we watched Gomorra. And Caterina came up in conversation.
do you remember when there was a massive italian film festival in santa monica and they showed all of pasolini’s movies? that was one tour the force, man. i’m still shell shocked.
*** SPOILERS ***
ah, yeah. reread your review, john, and i think i can see what puzzled you. i am not sure i know how to answer, though, because it’s all incredibly, painfully obvious to me. maybe this is a story that could be told, with minor adjustments, in an american context too, though — no? the mediocre man who always wanted to be one of the lucky ones… but his ambition is not noble, it comes of envy, class-rage, a feeling of having being wrongly doomed to the lower echelons when the higher echelons are nothing, NOTHING to aspire to because they are tawdry and sordid and empty. when he goes down, we are not sorry. the man is as power-hungry and corrupted, at least inside, as the men he despises/envies. (lots of italian literature on the emptiness of the upper classes, whether defined by wealth or by lineage).
i didn’t feel a tiny bit sorry for giancarlo. it’s telling the no one misses him when he (finally) goes away. also, i confess, his character hit me a bit too close to the bone… i know men like that… very well…
what’s distinctly italian is the profound — but also wry, comical, always sardonic, always ready to laugh at itself — political cynicism. italian politics, in particular the meteoric rise of the berlusconian right, is the subtext of the whole movie. paradoxically, the left-wing intellectuals have become the elite, whereas the right has a powerful populistic appeal and its followers feel that they are finally getting their turn at the helm of history. given italian history, this is very topsy turvy. the left was born of the war resistance, the catholic base, and the unions. of course, this being italy, and the whole place being truly run by organized crime (mafia, camorra, etc.), any party that wanted/reached power was/is always already corrupt, hence the various revolutionary movements of the 70s and 80s, in particular the red brigade. the communist party has had a hell of a time revising and re-revising itself, and it’s now barely hanging in there. the new parliament has not a single left-wing representative, for the first time since the end of the war. communism is berlusconi’s bete noir. he rails at it on tv in hour-long, castro- and chavez-like speeches (or minor-league imitations of such), as if the iron curtain hadn’t fallen like 20 years ago.
but i think a communist (not just left-wing) spirit is still alive and well in the country. i get this from snippets that reach me from afar: say, my 17-year-old nephew reading The Capital and che guevara (where did he get the notion? no one in his family gave it to him, i don’t think!). i think the counter-cultural function absolved in this country by the “green” (and human right) movement is absolved in italy by the hard left. there is a strong cultural communist heritage, and no one is ashamed of it. at the same time, berlusconi is winning election after election, in spite of the fact that he’s a regular international and national embarrassment, that he owns every media outlet, and that he is openly rewriting italian law to benefit himself. his appeal, as we see in the movie in the wedding scene, is that he represents “people like us:” uneducated, self-made, uncouth, boorish. i know people who adore him. you shout at them “he is taking away your pension!” till you are blue in the face to no avail whatsoever.
missing in this debate, you will have noticed, is religion. a strongly political movie such as this, had it been done here, would have required a dip into christian fundamentalism. i actually *think* that christian fundamentalism, albeit italian-style, is on the rise in italy, but the cynicism i mentioned above, this italian who-cares attitude, keeps all radicalisms in lukewarm waters.
i would have liked the movie better if giancarlo hadn’t raised my hackles so badly. thanks for directing me to it, regardless. very interesting.
Thanks, Gio, for pointing out what now seems (given your much-needed exposition of Italian politics and culture) quite plain. Giancarlo is flawed because he is, as you say, as power-hungry and corrupted as those he despises. This makes it all the more poignant that Caterina survives the tumult. I said above that this film should be called Giancarlo in the Big City. But having read your wonderful comment, Gio, I now understand why it is Caterina and not Giancarlo. I said that Caterina absorbs the intense energy of clashing cliques at her school. But she absorbs, second-hand, the energy of clashing cliques swirling around in her father’s soul. That it is second-hand in no way diminishes its effects.
I admire Caterina. And I hope that this film is as hopeful about Italy as an Italian film can be.
poor little caterina, hey? tough as nails, in spite of doormat mom and crazy dad. she’s so adorable. she doesn’t even know how to smile! in the last scene, she tries to stretch her lips but her eyes don’t respond. and yes, the cliques (about which giancarlo makes a big deal, first asking caterina to look up the word in the dictionary, then using it himself over and over much to everyone’s perplexity, cuz no one knows what it means! wish i remembered it now… got it! conventicola) are the very same giancarlo tries to crack. giancarlo deals with the parents, caterina with their kids. except caterina doesn’t really care. very sad when that boy who likes mahler has to dump her because his mom says so and then he bursts out crying and she has to console him, hey?
i wouldn’t have minded one of those homes, though.
sure it’s hopeful.