Italian “Revelations” in Perth
Recently, while working as Artistic Director for the Perth Revelation
International Film Festival (which Quickflix also sponsors), I came across a
great new Italian documentary.
Called
Pasolini Next To Us ("Pasolini
Prossimo Nostro"), it’s directed by Guiseppe Bertolucci, brother of
famous director
Bernardo (Last
Tango In Paris). It provides a rare glimpse into the mind of one of
Italy’s most famous – and infamous – directors:
Pier Paolo Pasolini Composed from over 50 hours of audio tapes,
hundreds of photos and a major television interview recorded by a British
journalist on the set of
Pasolini’s last and most controversial film ‘Salo’ (still banned in
this country), it is a powerful film about what it was to be one of the most
revered and reviled directors in Italy at the time.
Italian cinema has a reputation for spawning renegades. Vittorio De Sica’s
The Bicycle Thief (1948) is synonymous with the revolutionary
‘neo-realist’ movement, where non-actors were cast to more or less play
themselves in realistic situations and stories. Based on the novel by Luigi
Bartolini,
The Bicycle Thief is a true classic, reflecting the harsh economic and
political climate of post-war Italy. A hard-working father (played by
Lamberto Maggiorani) has his bicycle stolen, something he can ill
afford. Fearful he will lose his job (putting up Rita Hayworth posters all over
Rome!), he takes his young son (Enzo
Staioli) with him to roam the streets in search of it and the thief who
has also stolen his livelihood. It is a moving, compassionate story made all
the more powerful with its simplicity and understatement. If only all films
were this great.
Gillo Pontecorvo’s
The Battle Of Algiers (1965) is surely one of the most remarkable – and
radical – Italian films ever made, a political tract about colonial imperialism
and revolution. This is another grand exercise in neo-realism where real people
actually re-enact the events they had lived through, for the screen. From
1952-1966 the French Foreign legion attempted to invade the nation of Algiers,
with staunch resistance from its residents. Both sides of this war are depicted
with equal scrutiny; the ‘rebels’ and their clandestine, violent methods of
resistance, and the French army’s penchant for torture and humiliation.
Rumoured to be one of the films shown to American troops before they arrived in
Iraq, this is feature looks and feels like a documentary. It is a realistic
account of the horrors of war and invasion and a mighty classic, its resonance
felt today today.
Closer to the present, perhaps Italy’s most significant filmmaker working today
is
Nanni Moretti, one of the country’s favourite sons and most outspoken
filmmakers. (For two decades he has waged a running feud with Italy’s richest
man and most conservative political leader, Silvio Berlusconi). Probably best
known in Australia for his charming, semi-autobiographical 1993 film Cario
Diario (“Dear Diary”) – a big theatrical hit here recently released to DVD –
Moretti’s last great local cinema release was
The Son’s Room (2001), a searing account of an Italian family trying to
cope with the loss of their teenage son. It’s kind of nice to know that a man
so violently opposed to the ‘state of things’ is also capable of making such
gentle, emotional masterpieces as The Son’s Room. A rebel with a cause...
- Megan
Megan Spencer has spent way too much of her life in the dark, all for a good
cause though - watching movies as a professional film critic. For the last six
and a half years she has been serving the ever-increasing hunger for film and
DVD reviews as radio triple j's resident film critic, and a year ago joined the
new line up of long-running SBS-TV film review program, The Movie Show.
Every now and then she pops up into the light to make her own films,
documentaries (her latest is 'Fantastic Brutality', a documentary about an
obsessed wrestling fan, to be released next year). She has also written about
film for many publications including J-Mag, Limelight, Inside Film Magazine and
the Age Green Guide.
And the impossible question to ask a film critic: what's her favourite film?
"Blue Velvet would be at the top of the list, so would Fight Club... But then
again American In Paris makes me cry every time."
Megan has also been part of the Foxtel's Project Greenlight Australia as an
on-air panelist and judge.
