With a mysteriously enchanting soundtrack by Nicola Piovani and a black raven donned with a chiming bell flying over the timeless medieval villages perched defiantly on the mountains of Girgenti on the southern coast of Sicily – the brothers Taviani weave together five tales based on novels by 1934 Nobel prize in Literature laureate, Luigi Pirandello.
The film is titled Kaos as it’s the birthplace of Pirandello in this region. The opening quote reveals its seeming duality:
“…Io dunque son figlio del Caos; e non allegoricamente, ma in giusta realtà, perché son nato in una nostra campagna, che trovasi presso ad un intricato bosco, denominato, in forma dialettale, Càvusu dagli abitanti di Girgenti: corruzione dialettale del genuino e antico vocabolo greco Kàos.”
“…Therefore I am son of Chaos; and not allegorically but in true reality because I was born in the countryside, located nearby entangled woods named Càvusu by the inhabitants of Girgenti dialectal: corruption of the genuine and antique Greek name Kàos.”
-Luigi Pirandello
This statement clearly encapsulates Pirandello’s writing style that is also apparent in the film’s five tales showing how the lines between fantasy and reality often blur; words are worthless and reality can be false or true. It all boils down to how different people process information differently. And this information could be textual or visual as each one of us carries his own “survival baggage” of experiences and memories to make quick assessment of the reality in front of us.
Since the film is long (182 minutes), I recommend watching it in installments, savoring each tale to its maximum quality.
Franco and Ciccio in the third tale: “La Giara – The Jar”
I especially liked the third tale “La Giara – The Jar” which brings an air of classic fable with a comic flair by leveraging Italy’s epic duo Franco and Ciccio. Human greed and power are downplayed in two ways: Don Lolò (Ciccio Ingrassia) acknowledges life’s misleading aspects as he laments about a poor peasant boy passing by with a huge load on his back:
“Look at that kid. He doesn’t have anything, yet he still has 60 years of life ahead of him. And I who have all this, how many years left might I have 15, 20…”
And to underscore this point the role of Zi’ Dima (Franco Franchi) shows us how human shrewdness can overcome Don Lolò’s on paper great resources and power. The Pirandellian message is clear: never believe what you see. It’s up to you to interpret the situation and find your way to meet your truth.
And with such a fine message,
I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year!
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Posted by Shlomi Ron on 12.31.2009 at 12:09 pm// Tagged: Classic Italian Cinema, Comedy, Drama , Franco and Ciccio, Luigi Pirandello, Nicola Piovani, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, sicily //
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It’s a story told many times of a family that leaves home to find a better life elsewhere. In this masterpiece Visconti overlays this basic premise in Italy of the Economic Boom of early 60’s, the cultural dissonant emerging from a Southern family from Lucania trying to assimilate in big city Milan, and above all the elasticity of the “family unity” concept.
Why elasticity? The movie is broken into chapters where Visconti can comfortably switch gears and examine the developing plot from the perspective of each of the five Parondi’s brothers. Vincenzo (Spiros Focás) the big brother that arrives first to Milan quickly marries a local girl Ginetta (Claudia Cardinale) has two kids and buttresses himself around his new family. Then there is Simone (Renato Salvatori) who starts as a loving brother but turns into an opportunistic animal that overrides the family unity as he spirals down. In Ciro (Max Cartier), Visconti finds the true future of Italy, the only brother who finished school, works as technician at Alfa Romeo factory and about to get married. From Ciro’s perspective, Simone’s transgressions merit exclusion from the family as they’re contrasted with his beliefs of responsibility and family values.
And then we see Rocco (Alain Delon), the saint brother that can sacrifice his own love for a girl and give her to his brother Simone who needs it more. But that’s not enough, he is willing to support family unity even when the plot takes tragic turns. For him, you need to help your brother no matter what sin they committed, which is an interesting question. How far would you go?
Lucca (Rocco Vidolazzi), is the youngest and offers the innocent view as he’s being shuttled from brother to brother, running their errands and supporting their wants. Lucca is another stroke about the promising future, where kids are shown in ending scenes such as in Roma citta’ aperta – Rome Open City (Roberto Rossellini -1945).
The original trailer
And finally there is Rosaria (Katina Paxinou), another “rock of unity” – the mother who functions as the ambitious engine behind all brothers. It was she who wanted to leave their hometown and seek better futures for her sons. She’s all about emotions and endless care for their well beings. I especially liked the morning scene when she’s urging her sons to wake up, have their breakfast, and find a job – go conquer Milan. You may find this timeless maternal care in parallel morning scenes in Il Posto – The Job (Ermanno Olmi – 1961) and even The Bicycle Thief – Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio Di Sica -1948).
In today’s fast-pace globalized economies, the classic family structure is being broken forever as family members are scattered all around the world in search for the same dreams the Parondi’s family was after. Yes, we have reunions every once in a while, we even Skype, but you and your brothers or sisters are now feeding from an ancient well that once has been ripe with live gushing waters and is now being replaced with a trickle of premeditated niceties.
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Posted by Shlomi Ron on 11.15.2009 at 11:07 am// Tagged: Classic Italian Cinema, Drama , Economic Boom, Luchino Visconti, Milan //
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Have you ever been impressed by someone’s accomplishment and rationalized it by instinctively pulling out the usual excuses such as oh that most likely takes lots of experience, money, contacts and anything else that you can come up with to sooth your ego and inaction?
The reality is that we’re all doing it all the time without stopping to consider the “what if scenario.” What if I give it a try and that could be anything; leveraging your passion for gadgetry and attempting to write a techno-mystery novel, sending your resume to a long shot position, opening a gallery that specializes in rain forest photography or simply bridging your Italian ancestry and creating your own first movie, say in Sicily. Why not?
And if you take a look at the title above, you’ll find three people that actually managed to simply DO IT.
The story behind the making of this film is quite extraordinary and almost overshadows the actual story of the movie. Say your best buddie comes to you and says, remember we saw that catalog of the latest SONY HDV cameras a month ago? Well me and my brother are leaving next week to Italy, actually to a small hill town in Sicily called Lucca-Sicula to get to know better our family roots. Well we figured this could be a good excuse as any to buy these killer cameras and shoot some movie-quality clips now that the technology is available. And by the way we’ll be meeting with a few friends there. Don’t worry about money, my cousin is giving us a house to stay there for as long as we want – are you in? You betcha!
Since no one has prior experience in film making, first month you all take turns in learning how to use the cameras, some try it as being directors, others as actors. Second month, you all feel pretty much comfortable with the equipment and start shooting with local non-professional actors loosely based on Sicilian gags your cousin’s friends keep telling you every evening over pasta, local wine, and old Sicilian songs. And since you’re in Italy why not shoot in Italian peppered with some of these charming old tunes that by now you can’t get out of your head? It sure adds some authenticity, right? This is at least my interpretation of how this film was made based on information the directors share here.
Needless to say the result received amazing feedbacks including awards, which clearly proves a simple truth. It all boils down to a solid storytelling, fun characters and triple dose of authenticity represented in this case, by usage of Italian-speaking non professional actors, the beauty of the rolling Sicilian mountains and the timeless heart-warming traditional music to tie it all together.
The film poetically tells the story of an orange thief (Andrea Calabrese) and his simple love for the land and music. He starts initially without the land, but his love to music finally helps him not only get the land, but also friends.
The fact that you most likely haven’t heard about this fim before tells the immense challenges any indie film faces today where peer awards are nice but insufficient to break through and gain wide public exposure. I found this film by chance, during my routine checks of the Italian category on Netflix catalog that tends to be either static or tilted more towards horror and peplum genres.
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Posted by Shlomi Ron on 09.23.2009 at 8:48 pm// Tagged: Drama, Italian Cinema, Modern Italian Cinema //
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In-line with Independence Day here in the US, I figured it’s a good opportunity to deconstruct the concept of independence and throw it against Italian cinema backdrop. You can never know what you’ll find. When we speak of independence you can literally place it in wide range of contexts; from emotional, financial, political, to physical. And I am sure I missed others.
Looking at emotional independence we may ascribe it to being completely over a past romance or in control of a current relationship. In Visconti’s White Nights – Le notti bianche (1957), we see how the character of Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) gradually and surely becomes emotionally dependent on Natalia (Maria Schell). Only when Mario acknowledges that Natalia belongs to another, we can start see the transition into emotional independence, or put differently, Mario’s rational takes over his emotions. When you actually need to compromise your emotional aspirations and keep them at bay. Similar symptoms we can find in Antonioni’s The Outcry – Il Grido (1957), yet with one difference; Aldo’s (Steve Cochran) complete emotional dependence on Irma (Alida Valli) is never resolved and drives him into his dramatic fate.
Sometimes financial independence is exchanged for emotional dependence; Cabiria in Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria – Le Notti di Cabiria (1957), appears to project both emotional and financial independence, but internally she is extremely vulnerable to the point she puts her heart and money in a scoundrel that robs her out of both. That’s not always the case, sometimes financial independence is solid, but through the passage of time, it empties up emotions and turns them backwards into nostalgic flair. The older Toto (Jacques Perrin) in Torantore’s Cinema Paradiso (1988) is a big shot director that carries an emotional void to his past – his old village, his mentor, first love and the cinematic masterpieces of his youth that serve as memory milestones of time and places long gone.
Whereas the family structure is missing in older Toto’s life, then in Gabriele Muccino’s Remember Me My Love – Ricordati di me (2003), we get to see a middle class, financially stable family, where time erodes emotional ties among its members. Each one is on a separate trajectory to find emotional compensation to add meaning to their existence. And like in Cinema Paradiso, searching the past to help the present, Carlo (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) turns to an old flame.
Political independence is also a recurring theme in Italian cinema, from heroic stories of resistance against all odds as depicted in Francesco Rosi’s Salvatore Giuliano (1962), Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers – La battaglia di Algeri (1966) or Visconti’s The Earth Trembles – La Terra Trema (1948), to name a few. The ingredients include a deprived minority that struggles to better its conditions by being able to control its destiny and well-fare. The battle not always succeeds (La TerraTrema) and involves painful sacrifices in effort to attain an elusive independence.
Movies can attempt to tell a story that might appear as realistic, and authentic. Yes, I can relate to this emotional independence or its lack thereof – it also happened to me. Yet, the way I see it, behind every movie there is a personal story the director is trying to convey. Unfortunately, 99% of the time, we as spectators cannot possibly be exposed to the depth of details that caused the director for example, to pick those particular job candidates in Olmi’s The Job – Il Posto (1961), as an expression for his views about work, neorealism and choice of non-professional actors, in this case true job seekers that can easily convey genuine in-context facial and body language. So what we’re left with is viewing the movie independently through our personal past experiences or future aspirations – as guides to extract meanings. If there is a nice alignment, we may come out liking the movie, if not then this patchwork of moving images with musical layering – was simply unmoving.
Checking the dictionary, I found this definition:
The state or quality of being independent; freedom from dependence; exemption from reliance on, or control by, others; self-subsistence or maintenance; direction of one’s own affairs without interference.
Pretty much covering the usual suspects. Regardless, you know what your independence truly means, that fine balance between being in control and the need to depend on trusted sources in order to form a logical sense of it all.
Posted by Shlomi Ron on 07.04.2009 at 12:21 pm// Tagged: Italian Cinema, Modern Italian Cinema //
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It’s part of the trio short movies proposed by Per Fiducia, the project already described in the review of Il Premio.
This is an intense shot on reality. When we say the eloquence of silence. He makes the silence speak. Slowly, sweetly, deeply. Black and white, and we are already into a poem. Every single shot is a portrait of truth. It’s amazing the power of these images. We don’t need to speak to be understood if who is watching us can read a little deeper. Sorrentino can really drill through the soul of his characters.
A strong message towards the truth. A kind of, just be yourself. But also a message of being close to others, because anything in life is related to others. The match, with your companions, and the team work. And no matter who they are, young, old, father, friends, they are your team players. You have to trust all of them.
Very interesting the choice of a rugby match, an unusual sport in Italy, that gives the sense of team, of fighting together, where the compact strength of the group is very important.
A masculine message if you want, a message for men. However with no macho input at all. Instead an invitation maybe to reconsider the natural meaning of being a man, from the basic.
The location. A field in the suburbs of a big town. Where we think a strong message of hope is even more needed. And where the ground for simple values could be uncertain as well as more natural at the same time.
The characters. A simple working class family, very sweet and very true. There is this strong tight shred that links the whole thing. The grandma, the father, the mother, the son. What a cute picture. The family, an important value to support and to pursue for mutual benefits of all its components. Family as the first strong starting point for building a good sense of trust towards yourself, the others and the future. It’s a lovely movie, intense and rich. And artistically wonderful.
Buona visione.
Posted by Laura Bianconcini on 04.27.2009 at 12:50 am// Tagged: Documentary, Drama, Italian Cinema, Modern Italian Cinema, Political, Romance, Short //
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