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A Taste of Italian Cinema
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By
Lamya Tawfik**
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Dec.
19, 2005
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The
trumpeter in Now and Forever
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There
is an intrinsic beauty in Italian cinema. Perhaps it is the evident laboring
over character development, or the intense dialogue and artistic camerawork.
Perhaps it is all of the above, or perhaps it simply stands out amidst the
flashy, Hollywood-style, fast-food movie industry.
Recently,
the Egyptian audience got the chance to sample Italian movies produced within
the last few years during the Cairo Film Festival 2005, which took place across
Cairo from November 29 to December 9. Twelve Italian movies were screened during
the festival, including one competing movie, La Porta delle 7 Stelle (Door
of the Seven Stars, 2005).
The
movie, directed by Pasquale Pozessere, speaks of the transformation of an
8-year-old piano genius, David, from a pilot to a businessman and how his life
is affected by his traumatic childhood. It begins at the Door of the Seven
Stars, a hotel in India where David’s mother was mysteriously murdered when he
was 8 years old. Traumatized, he is sent to a mental hospital in Italy where at
age 14 he suddenly decides to quit playing the piano and joins the air force
instead.
Events
lead him to meet Raimondo, a powerful rich financer, and David ends up quitting
the air force, after his father’s death, to work as Raimondo’s private
pilot. It is meeting Pradip, a brilliant 13-year-old hacker, which profoundly
impacts David’s life. He learns from Arianna, Raimondo’s lover, that it is
Pradip’s skill which has made Raimondo what he is today. He not only learns of
Raimondo’s fraudulent wealth accumulation but also of his involvement in
illegal activities such as the production of chemical weapons and the
trafficking of human organs.
At
this point, Pozzessere leaves the viewer bewildered and unable to clearly
categorize David as a “good” or a “bad” guy, something the audience
longs for but which would not have been very realistic. Pozzessere’s genius in
crafting David’s character with all its contradictions is obvious. On the one
hand, David seeks Pradip’s skill to become wealthy, but on the other, he
chooses to make documents linking Raimondo to illegal activities available on
the Internet. In a fairy-tale closing scene, David decides to confront his past
and makes a self-healing trip back to the Door of the Seven Stars hotel (where
his mother was murdered), where he finds Arianna waiting for him. The
circumstances of the murder itself remain a mystery.
Neorealism
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The
godfather of neorealism: Roberto Rosselini
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Since
the mid 1900s, the Italian film industry has become well known for its neorealist
movies, characterized by narratives that are not neatly plotted,
with quasi-documentary-style camera work. Neorealistic movies are mostly filmed
at “real” locations rather than in studios. The editing is minimal and the
lighting simple. Leaders in the neorealistic genre include Roberto Rosselini (Rome,
Open City, 1945) Vittorio de Sica (Bicycle Thief, 1948) and
Fredrico Fellini (La Strada, 1954). Two other movies shown during the
festival incorporated elements of neorealism: Ora e per Sempre (Now
and Forever, 2005) and Pontormo, Un Amore Eretico (Pontormo, A
Heretical Love, 2004).
Now
and Forever tells the story of the tragic death
of the football team of the city of Torino, the legendary “Grande Torino,”
which perished in an air crash in 1949. Director Vincenzo Verdecchi takes the
viewer back and forth in time through several flashbacks that are interwoven
with the general narrative. The story is told through the eyes of fans as well
as individuals whose lives had been touched by one of Italy’s greatest
football teams, including a fan who played the trumpet during games to boost the
team’s morale.
The
second movie, Pontormo, Un Amore Eretico (Pontormo, A Heretical Love,
2004) also retells history; it is another characteristic of neorealist movies.
This time, the hero is the famous 16th century Florentine painter Jacopo
Carrucci, also known as Pontormo, whose muse is a young exiled woman, muted when
her tongue was cut out during the Flemish war. When his muse is accused of being
a witch, Pontormo tries to save her from the Inquisition by using his political
connections.
One
of the characteristics of neorealism is the dubbing of dialogue. Looking
closely, the viewer will notice that some actors are actually speaking in
English and that their speech is dubbed. The director of the movie, Giovanni
Fago, has worked with De Sica and Rosselini and his work is evidently inspired
by neorealist cinema.
Timely
Movies
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Palestinian
actor Mohammed Bakri intimidated by an Israeli soldier in Private
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Perhaps
two of the most striking and controversial movies shown during the festival were
those discussing current world issues. Private
(2003), directed by Saverio Constanzo, is entirely in Arabic. It chronicles
the life of a Palestinian family and brings into sharp focus a common
tribulation suffered by Palestinans. One day, Israeli soldiers storm into the
family’s house, confine them to their living room, and say, “From now on,
this house belongs to the Israeli army.”
These
words change their life as they now face a new and claustrophobic reality. They
are not to go to the top floor of their own house under any circumstances.
During the day they are allowed to wander around the bottom floor of their house
until a certain time in the evening, when an Israeli soldier orders them to go
back to the living room regardless of what they are doing, be it talking or
having dinner in the kitchen. Brilliant Palestinian actor Mohammed Bakri plays
the calm father who tries to put strength into his family, even in an intense,
seat-gripping scene where a gun is put to his head because he goes to the top
floor a bit earlier than usual one morning.
As
the going gets tough, his wife tries to convince him to leave the city. “If
you go I’ll stay,” he tells her. Powerful dialogue and Constanzo’s
artistic talent succeed at the challenge of filming in a single location, making
this one of the most powerful movies shown during the festival. The movie was
shot in Calabria in southern Italy and most actors are Palestinian or Italian
Arabs. In spite of the film’s brilliance, a note must be made on the
translation: In many instances where the older daughter says that she must stay
in Palestine to “resist,” the English subtitles say “fight.” This
translation has connotations that make the daughter’s intent appear
considerably different from the Arabic original.
The
second movie that touches on contemporary events and sheds light on cultural
stereotyping in relation to terrorism is GianPaolo Tescari’s Gli Occhi
dell’altro (Through the Eyes of the Other, 2004). In this movie, an
Italian couple take in a Muslim Kurdish refugee, Nadir, which brings out
involuntary racist feelings in the academic husband, David, driving him close to
lunacy. He begins envisioning his guest as a rapist and thief and imagines him
committing violent acts.
David’s
feelings culminate when in one scene, Nadir, who has finally landed a job as a
waiter, invites his host family to dinner. In this scene a drunk David decides
to treat Nadir as a waiter rather than a friend, much to the dismay of his wife,
Barbara. Racist feelings towards the new guest are also expressed by the
housekeeper who, when Nadir leaves the house, reassures her host that
“there’s nothing that a disinfectant can’t clean.”
The
film’s ending is, again, bewildering. While Barbara, a choreographer, is
attending a performance, we see David racing down the street and knocking down
Nadir. Another scene follows that shows them “starting over” and
reintroducing themselves to one another. It is unclear what happened, and the
audience is left to infer for itself.
It’s
noticeable in the Italian film industry that happy endings are not a necessity,
nor is it important for directors to give a sense of closure to their movies.
Movies often end abruptly and obscurely. If you are accustomed to movies with a
true “end,” these cliff hangers can initially be annoying, and when the
lights are turned on you will hear all around “So did he die?”; “No, I
don’t think so”; “So he didn’t really kill him”; “I’m not sure.”
But life is all about uncertainties and the Italian directors know this and
cater to that fact.
Italian
cinema continues to play a leading role in European cinema. Whatever it is that
makes it special, few cinema industries could boast such a gripping effect on
international audiences. An audience that continues to be mesmerized by
everything with the magic word “Italian” stuck to it.
**
Lamya Tawfik is a freelance
journalist and a journalism instructor based in Cairo, Egypt. She is pursuing a
doctorate degree at the Institute for Postgraduate Studies in Childhood at Ain
Shams University. She can be reached at lamyatawfik@islamonline.net.
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