Lina Wertmüller: Ciao, Professore!

Lina Wertmüller's Ciao, Professore! / Io speriamo che me la cavo (1992) takes a mostly comic look at a classic situation in which cultures and socio-economic classes collide in Arzano, a small city just north of Naples in Southern Italy. It's based on Io speriamo che me la cavo. Sessanta temi di bambini napoletani, a non-fiction book compiled and edited by Marcello D'Orta, first published in 1990, that revolves around actual grade school essays written by several of D'Orta's pupils. Some of these make their way into the film. The kids are super-worldly for the most part, way more street wise than the typical third grader, one suspects.* A lot of them have to work because of home situations, many out of necessity in the black market.

                                                                                                                                                               

In the movie, Professore Sperelli (Paolo Villaggio) arrives in Arzano from Northern Italy and then strives to do his job well locally. He ends up learning as much (or more) from his students as they from him while we all learn more about Italy and the modern world.

There's almost always a built-in storyline when cultures collide. There's so much rich material that lends itself to comedy in movies and books like Ciao, Professore! -- and tragedy in other works -- just as in life throughout history and around the globe. Here we have North and South Italy, but it could just as easily be set in the USA, or even within an individual state like Michigan ("Up North" contrasted with "Southeast Michigan" aka Detroit and its environs, or as opposed to "Western Michigan."). It could be set in England (London, the South and the North Country) or Germany (Bavaria and the Baltic or North Sea coast). Luis Buñuel inserts jokes about South-North differences in several films, whether set in Mexico, Spain or France. Clearly, cultural nuances and varieties make for a lot of interest. Why else would we travel? Indeed, why else would immigration and migration be such a big deal if such were not the case? 

*To quote from one pupil's essay on Switzerland:

Switzerland sells arms to the whole world so they can kill each other, but Switzerland doesn't ever have even a small war. They build banks with all their money. But not good banks. The banks are for bad persons, especially drug addicts. Criminals from Sicily and China put their money in these banks. The police go and ask, Whose money is this? and they say I don't know, I'm not going to tell you, it's none of your damn business, the bank is closed. But the bank is really open!!  (For the whole essay, see http://www.napoli.com/english/blog26.php)
  

Today's Rune: Protection.  

Lina Wertmüller: Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August

"And this is for not paying taxes and taking your money to Switzerland!"

A line that jumps right off the 1974 screen and into the 2012 US presidential election. 

And so it goes with much of Lina Wertmüller's Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto / Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August. 

Despite the fact that no person is killed for the duration, it's an edgy film, filled with Italian language obscenities characteristic of the tumultuous interaction between wealthy industrialist Raffaella Pavone Lanzetti (Mariangela Melato) and working class schlub Gennarino Carunchio (Giancarlo Giannini) -- especially after they're separated from the rest of the workers and passengers of the yacht they've been traveling on.

For comparison? Imagine a blend of Robinson Crusoe and Gilligan's Island, only it's two Italian people of different socio-economic classes and regions stranded on a wayward island. Far beyond Crusoe and Gilligan, though, imagine a tale of Marxian survival that inexorably stumbles into sometimes savage conflict-ridden sex.

"Every dog has his day, every servant his pay!"

In brief, Swept Away is a sharp and pithy comedy dealing with serious underlying issues.

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.

[Warning: This Swept Away mustn't be confused with the sad 2002 remake directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Madonna. God, no. Or as Gennarino cries in desperation in the original: "Madonna! Santa Rosalia!" Heaven forbid! Lina Wertmüller's original or bust!]         

Lina Wertmüller: Summer Night, with Greek Profile, Almond Eyes and Scent of Basil

On the one hand, Lina Wertmüller's Notte d'estate con profilo greco, occhi a mandorla e odore di basilico / Summer Night, with Greek Profile, Almond Eyes and Scent of Basil (1986) captures the garishness of the 1980s, and on the other, it continues to explore some of her perennial topics -- sex and power, gender and socio-economic class. Despite beautiful scenery, a catchy kitsch pop soundtrack, pugnacious dialogue and memorable performances by Mariangela Melato (as super wealthy Fulvia) and Roberto Herlitzka (as semi-retired CIA contractor Turi), I can't imagine many would seek this one out.

The basic setup for Summer Night, with Greek Profile, Almond Eyes and Scent of Basil  is this: Fulvia has Turi capture a bandit gangster (Beppe, played gruntingly by Michele Placido) to toy with while waiting for ransom from his crime organization in revenge for ransom her corporation had paid to it. They keep him in chains, eyes often covered. Despite the comic tone of the film, it evokes certain unpleasant images (Gitmo and Abu Ghraib come to mind, for instance), and there are unflattering references to the US-Vietnam War, the Shah's Iran and the Iranian Revolution, and US involvement in Nicaragua. Use of technology includes closed circuit TV (constant surveillance of the prisoner) and psychological manipulation. Beyond this, there is a primal mutual attraction between Fulvia and Beppe, making Turi jealous. For better and for worse, human nature endures -- "and the rest is history."  

Today's Rune: Movement.    

Lina Wertmüller: Pasqualino Settebellezze / Seven Beauties

Lina Wertmüller's Seven Beauties (1975) brims over with frenetic and dazzling energy. It presents the years of Mussolini and Hitler and the Holocaust with a crisp originality. Not coincidentally, Wertmüller was the first female director to ever receive a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Director. (Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to actually win Best Director, and that in 2009 for The Hurt Locker -- more than three decades after Seven Beauties).

What's the story arc? First we see a stunning montage of archival footage from the Second World War synchronized with a strange sing-song punctuated with "Oh yeah's." Then, a blending of flashbacks and chronological jumps that are done with remarkable deftness. We follow the main character (Pasqualino Seven Beauties), an absurd popinjay and petty player, on a rollercoaster ride of personal decisions mixed with grand luck or fate, good and bad, played out. We see him having deserted from Stalingrad* and fleeing for his life, but also in an insane asylum and a concentration camp. Will he survive, and what will become of his mother and sisters whether he does or not? Horrifying situations enlivened by dark humor.

*Not widely known in the West, the Italian 8th Army lost about 21,000 killed at Stalingrad; perhaps 45,000 escaped alive from the great Soviet strategic trap.

Today's Rune: Defense.    

The Yazidi: People of the Peacock

Most organized religions seem very strange from the outside. Not just the Church of the Latter Day Saints, Christian Scientists, or Scientologists, either. The Yazidi / Yezidi / Êzidîtî / Êzidî certainly seem so. Like every other socially manifested religion, they say they are the true believers, the top of the heap, the chosen people. (I mean, really: wouldn't it be refreshing for members of a sect to say, "We like our beliefs, but it's okay if you don't; we think we're cool, but also realize we're just one of thousands of belief systems. . ." ?)

The problem with exclusivity is: the group naturally becomes a target. The easier to identify, the easier to attack. And today, in the Kurdish region of Iraq, scores of Yazidi faithful were blown to smithereens. Earlier this year, several Yazidis were gunned down in retaliation for stoning a Yazidi Juliet to death -- she'd fallen in love with a Muslim Romeo and broken a taboo -- for no Yazidi can hook up with an outsider. Given this rule, the Yazidi population can be decimated by a determined enemy.

The Yazidi believe in The Seven Mysteries, sort of archangels, topped off by Melek Taus, The Peacock Angel. The first people were Adam and Eve, but the Yazidi are directly descended from only Adam via Son of Jar. (Adam and Eve both had their own jar, but Eve's was more like Pandora's Box.) Son of Jar hooked up with a houri -- a "companion pure, most beautiful of eye" -- and the rest is history. The People of the Peacock go back at least 4,000 years, so it would seem. I checked the Book of Moroni, but it doesn't shed any light on the matter.


Wim Wenders' Birthday. Cool German, a memorable filmmaker along with Werner Herzog. Doing mostly documentaries lately, always pensive and interesting.


Lina Wertmüller's birthday. Must do a Wertmüller retrospective at some point, I'm thinking. Hot stuff in the 1970s, and she's still making movies.


Happy birthday, Emmanuelle Béart. C'est oh!

Today's Rune: Journey.

Birthdays: Doc Holliday, Russell Baker, Lina Wertmüller (b. Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich), Steve Martin (b. Waco, Texas), Wim Wenders, Antonio Juan Fargas (Huggy Bear), Susan Saint James, Danielle Fernande Dominique Schuelein-Steel, Gary Larson, Marcia Gay Harden, Magic Johnson (b. Lansing, Michigan), Emmanuelle Béart, Halle Berry.

Edge of Outside: Aiming for the Final Cut

Beginning tomorrow, Turner Classic Movies will showcase a series of influential movies directed by maverick independent filmmakers ranging from John Cassavetes to Martin Scorsese. A documentary, Edge of Outside, will frame this month-long film festival with the insightful ruminations of various directors, actors, writers, cinematographers, and critics. Showtime begins at 8 p.m. (E.S.T.) on July 5, 2006 on TCM. This fascinating montage of new and archival interviews and film clips will run again on July 19 at 11 p.m. (For a full festival schedule, please see my June 25, 2006 post; it is also listed on the Turner Classic Movies website).

Edge of Outside includes fascinating observations and analysis by and about Spike Lee, Arthur Penn, John Sayles, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, Sam Fuller, Stanley Kubrick, Sam Peckinpah, Alfred Hitchcock, Nicholas Ray, Orson Welles, Roger Corman, David Lynch, and many other filmmakers. The common thread is independent spirit: tenacious and resilient pursuit of artistic vision; raising money to fund projects (an often exhausting and relentless process); and bids for artistic control, especially for the "final cut" of their films (here Woody Allen is noted for his consistent ability to achieve this coveted goal) -- directors understandably lament more than anything else when a studio steps in to patch a happy or sappy ending on their own version, and try anything to wriggle free from such interference. It is clear to most, of course, that ultimately movie making is a business as well as an art form: some have responded pragmatically, others defiantly.

Produced and directed by TCM's Shannon Davis, Edge of Outside is so packed with interesting points that it's worth repeated viewing. Structurally, we see influential and thoughtful people speaking specifically for this film in gorgeous apartments, flats, and bars, insterspersed with excellent footage from movies, shoots, and archival interviews of deceased directors like Orson Welles. This will appeal to anyone who likes movies and is also interested in real world creative processes. Davis has done a fine job providing a wide range of perspectives, all of which rekindle interest in these great directors.

One thing that stands out is that all of the directors are men: it is a demonstrable contrast and sign of change that this documentary was made by a woman. This inspires me to research the period when women filmmakers began emerging -- a relatively recent process that speaks volumes about cultural norms and innovations. Lina Wertmüller (1928-) leaps to mind. More will be revealed. Meanwhile, I can't wait to see John Cassavetes' Faces (1968), the first featured classic that begins tomorrow night at 9:15 p.m., immediately after Edge of Outside. And by the way, Gena Rowlands (who was married to John Cassavetes) is terrific in both Faces and Edge of Outside.



Ciao, darlings!