• Sub-Plots: Police investigation showcases stories of five witnesses that depict how their day started and what they saw when it finishes in Paolino park

• Themed Character: Roman rain that drives characters to seek shelter, triggering transitions to portrayal of the prostitute at different stages of her day before meeting her nocturnal fate.

Paolino Park where all witnesses congregate
and the victim – prostitute in the far left

The above are the building blocks of an Italian cinema masterpiece, written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci based on a story by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The backdrop story is that Bertolucci has started his career assisting Pasolini in his first feature film Accatone a year earlier. He describes this experience as “witnessing the birth of cinema” as neither Pasolini nor him had any experience making films. All Pasolini wanted was close up angles of the protagonists that should resemble tormented faces of religious saints, sacrificed on the altar as depicted in timeless Tuscan paintings.

In this film you will find the typical Pasolinian themes of the rough life of poor boys on the fringe of society and their struggles to find meaning in a chaotic environment. Pasolini convinced Cinecitta’ executives to allow Betrolucci and Franco Citti to turn his story into screenplay. However by the time the script was ready, Pasolini was completely busy tending to his film Mamma Roma (1962), so luck and ample talent crossed path and the assignment of directing the film was given to 21 year old Bertolucci who had never before directed a full feature film.

In the Criterion’s interview of this disc, Bertolucci confesses to the initial disbelief sentiment the entire set had towards taking orders from a young unknown 21-year old. What I found interesting is that although Bertolucci tried to personalize the film with his signature poetic style of keeping the camera always in movement as it followed the characters’ individual trajectories towards the park crime scene, emphasizing the element of the passing hours as a prosaic manifestation of the ordinary and life-like realism – critics only saw the Pasolinian influence dominating. It tells you a lot about the delicate balance between screenplay and directing style, especially when the story comes from such a powerful source as Pasolini.

The film brings another fine auditory gem; a brooding suspense of the park scenes countered with a jovial jazzy street life – a genuine score
by classic composer Piero Piccioni. With that, the film opens up a window to a Pasolinian Rome coined in his signature novel “Ragazzi di vita” of the early 60’s, depicting rough urban realities of adolescents at the lowest social rung: the faces, the fashion, the accents, the architecture, the cars, and yes the music that paints it all with a rich depth.

You will find the story structure following Akira Kurosawa’s Rashômon (1950), where a master scene is being reflected by myriad of point views, in this case of the five eye witnesses, each revealing another layer that was not visible through the others.

Think about the next time you read the paper about the latest crime scoop, which serves as the only valid conclusion but what caused it often carries multiple conflicting agendas, which validates once again that the truth is indeed in the eye of the beholder.

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Luisa Anselmi played by Anouk Aimée

Some interpretations for the title 81/2 includes the number of episodes of the film or number of films Fellini did until that point, with the “1/2″ representing his co-direction with Alberto Lattuada of Luci del Varietà – Variety Lights (1950).

Counter to the Neorealism genre that focused on external themes in a documentary fashion using real locations, non-professional actors and post-war social issues of poverty and survival, Fellini transformed this view from the objective to the subjective. This film attempts to uncover the internal and subjective workings of an individual mind. In this case, Guido Anselmi’s, interpreted beautifully by Marcello Mastroianni, a famous film director experiencing creative block. A lot has been written about Mastroianni, in essence, playing Fellini’s alter ego, which in that sense lends the film to be an autobiographical representation of Fellini’s personal world as a director.

Such world also known as “Fellinian” is characterized with a surreal almost fantastic ambiance of a circus, with multiple exaggerated characters operating in grand spectacles contexts. The film brings together scenes coming out from Guido’s mind showcasing people he knew in an effort to capture that big idea for the film. But then cutting to scenes taking place in the present that add reality-pressure in the form of anxious producer, wife, lover, actors – who are all trying to negotiate their wants from the struggling director.

You can easily see how this work influenced many filmmakers; some of Woody Allen’s films that mix fantasy and reality as the director brings actual dialogs taken from his life as part of making a movie. The result is a personal movie within a movie or as Seinfeld TV series aptly coined “show about nothing.” But as we all know that “nothing” is in fact “rich something” – a realistic representation of life itself where things never work as we want them to or seem as they are. From this respect, we see that Fellini was directly influenced by ideas from 1934 Italian Literature Nobel laureat, Luigi Pirandello, also discussed in a recent review of Kaos (Paolo and Vittorio Taviani -1984).

Other worth noting elements includes the recurring implicit shtick Guido employs throughout the film, touching his nose, which in Italian signifies “The big Liar” motif. True, a film is in fact a made up story and in the case of Fellini serves as a signature style effectively captured in a 2002 documentary about Fellini’s work: “Federico Fellini: I’m a Big Liar” by Damian Pettigrew. A similar shtick we also see in Mastroianni’s recurring tick sound in Pietro Germi’s classic Divorzio all’italiana – Divorce Italian Style (1961).

I especially liked the interpretation of Luisa, Guido’ wife played by French actress, Anouk Aimée, which Fellini already included in La Dolce Vita. Her bookish style with black-framed spectacles and the eternal in-mouth cigarette signifying her disturbed alertness to the shenanigans Guido cooks up. Such turbulence rocks their relationship with a parade of on-set lovers and borrowing some of their real-life intense arguments into dialogs for his movie.

And I cannot ignore another signature soundtrack by all-time Fellini’s collaborator, Nino Rota that completes this work with a musical gem to support the carnival atmosphere where fantasy and reality blend into a colorful parade of characters and meanings, even though the film is in black and white…

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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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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).

Click here to view the embedded video.

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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