«Edith and Marcel» (1983)

Tonight all France is boxing/singing with you

Two symbols of France – Marcel Cerdan and Edith Piaf, - started to make their name in history on the eve of the Second World War. Then, in 1948 they met in New York City and started their ill-fated romance (if you quote Hymne à l'amour «nous aurons pour nous l'éternité...»). Nevertheless, the film was panned by the critics. I don’t understand why.

«Edith and Marcel» captures the spirit of that age and the sweet melancholy of Piaf’s song. They are two completely different people – capricious bohemian Edith and silent fighter Marcel, - but their ride is filled with joy and immature silliness. Nevertheless, we all know what will happen on the 28^th of October 1949.

Still, the film is not biographical, like «Le Bon et les Méchants», it is more a fantasy trip on the basis of real events. The film is filled with the symbols of that age, including «Gone with the Wind» and love letters between persons separated by long distance. To add a little touch of how ordinary people invent their phantasy life, Claude Lelouch supplements the parallel line of love story between POW Jacques Bonhomme and aristocratic Margot de Villedieu.

Summarizing, «Edith and Marcel» is long and engaging voyage. I could say only one thing - don’t hesitate to take that voyage with Edith and Marcel.

«Buongiorno, notte» (2003)

In the 1970s Italy was rocked with acts of political terrorism, committed by far-left and far-right terrorist groups. This period was called the Years of Lead and some historians even characterized it as a low-intensity civil war. This, combined with economic crisis, gave the impression of the total collapse of the Italian state and full impotence of the ruling party (Democrazia Cristiana).

That situation demanded irregular decisions and certain major players of Democrazia Cristiana, including Aldo Moro, decided to make reapproachment with the Italian Communist Party. The Historic Compromise was opposed by lots of powerful forces, but it gave a hope of fixing the chronic Italian problems. Then, on 16^th of March, 1978, Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Reb Brigades.

By the end of the 1970s, the Italian Communist Party shifted to the reasonable left-wing platform and showed its administrative credentials in the certain parts of Italy (including Emilia-Romagna). On the other hand, the Red Brigades was a radical left-wing terrorist organization in the mold of Narodnaya Volya. They applied such principles as a culpability of a person just on a merit of his affiliation with the certain class (i.e. bourgeoisie).

The film captures the spirit of the Red Brigades, whose members were, among them, dogmatic radicals, who were committed only to so-called «proletarian justice», or left-wing students, who began to get disappointed in violence. At first, they think that the Italian state is on its knees and the Italians will support them, but the reality is different – the people are indifferent or appalled and the political class took a hard stance against terrorism.

Marco Bellocchio shows the events through the eyes of Chiara – a 23-year old radicalized woman, who assists the Brigades and works as some dead-end job at the ministry. Firstly, she sees everything through the prism of class struggle and considers Aldo Moro as an oppressor. Still, she starts to see things differently and understands that nothing is black and white. In addition, Chiara starts to realize that her organization is turning into something that she truly abhors – fascists, which were also ready to execute people without proper proof of their guilt.

Nevertheless, they already went too far and there is no turning back for them. The Director also included the repetitive historical pattern of how some radical fools (such as SA during the rise of Hitler or Left Socialist-Revolutionaries during the Russian Revolution) are used for some political gain and then discarded as an used ammo. So, the Red Brigades became useful to sabotage the Historic Compromise, but for how long?

The film captures this claustrophobic atmosphere and the heroes are already in prison. Only, for that moment, their prison got separate rooms, good food, books and wine. Nevertheless, soon they will move to a less comfortable prison, where they will rot for many years to come. Moreover. their prisoner, a decent (at least, for a politician) family man and god-fearing Catholic, will be uses as a martyr to promote some short-term political goals.

A former radical left-wing activist Marco Bellocchio shot an extraordinary film about how idealism, combined with political radicalism, could lead to barbaric actions and how those actions can be exploited by some smart people. Watch it.

«Mr. Klein» (1976)

We've been French and Catholic since Louis XIV!

1942, Paris. Unscrupulous art dealer Robert Klein makes desperate French Jews to pay peanuts for priceless objects of art. He is quite content with his life until he is mistaken for a Jewish namesake. From that moment, he desperately needs to prove his non-Jewish heritage or the consequences will be horrific.

During the Nazi occupation, the French people retained, for the time being, some civil rights (or, at least, the resemblance of it). Frenchmen, who was not engaging in some subversive activities, were left alone by the Nazis. Still, one slip (such as contact with the undesirable) – and the person could end up in the collaborationist French police or, even worse, in the Gestapo.

In the post-war West Germany, all the blame was shifted to the SS, and Wehrmacht was portrayed as noble descendants of the brave knights, who were honorably doing their job. Post-war France adopted another legend – the French society was actively resisting occupation and collaborationists were just a few renegades.

Still, the reality was far from this fiction. During the film, there is almost no German character, and most of the dirty work is done by the Frenchmen (police officers, unscrupulous dealers and etc.). Parisians are trying to lead an ordinary life and, the most despicable among them, is trying to make a profit from the plight of others.

Any dictatorship and totalitarian regime always seek to brand certain categories as enemies. It could be a social class, a race or something else. Such people are completely cancelled. First, they’re stripped from their rights, secondly, they’re completely excluded from society and, finally, they’re stripped from their freedom or, even, from their life. Such process starts on a mere suspicion and when Robert Klein is suspected in being Jewish, his life starts to disintegrate.

What aides dictatorship? Collaborationism? To a certain amount, yes. Dictatorship is aided most by apathy and indifference. The plight of the oppressed is accompanied by the silence of the rest. Those who retain some resemblance of dignity will stay silent, those who don’t have scruples will take advantage of the cancelled person.  

Will Robert Klein prove that he is French and Catholic? Watch and find out the answer. «Mr. Klein» is a powerful story about the triumph of evil in an apathetic society. See this film and think carefully about the message.

«Ginger & Fred» (1986)

Bittersweet symphony by Fellini

 

A popular Italian TV show entertains the viewers with all kings of grotesque, including charlatans, impersonators and imprisoned mafiosos. One day, the show presents to the people two past stars – impersonators of Fred Astaire and Ginger Roberts. Will the modern public understand those dinosaurs?

 

In the 1980s Silvio Berlusconi launched his TV empire and flooded the Italian screens with Americanized game shows and soap operas. Fellini shows Rome filled with vulgar advertising and adult cinema billboards. He constantly pokes fun at this new world with its emphasis on tittering the lowest impulses of the people. He even gave a small role to Moana Pozzi (Google about her).

Still Fellini is no Pasolini, so he wasn’t filming the indictment of modern society. He made a bittersweet symphony about two past stars, who are reunited after a long separation. They’re beaten by life and age, but they still have their magic. While they’re preparing for the showtime, we feel their energy and chemistry. So, maybe they will be able to win the love of the new generation.

 

So, despite showing the vulgarity of the 1980s Italy, «Ginger & Fred» is first and foremost a moving story about the meeting between an old Italy of music hall and a new Italy of TV shows. It tastes like grapefruit or fine chianti. So, don’t hesitate to savor it!

«Supersex» (2024)

A feminist outlook on Rocco Siffredi

 

How feminist can write something about Rocco Siffredi? I think that his name is a red rag for lots of people, especially feminists. Still, the Italian feminist Francesca Manieri wrote a script for the 7-episode TV series and even Rocco didn’t say bad words about it. Was she able to pull it off successfully? In my opinion, the answer is both yes and no.

An article on deadline.com informs that Francesca Manieri wrote the series as a statement on what porn represents and how modern masculinity is constructed[1]. The story of a descendant of a poor and devoutly Catholic family from a conservative coastal Italian town (Ortona) is a fertile ground for such statement.

Mom wanted her little Rocco to become a priest, but he wasn’t suited for it, his vocation was in something else. Rocco is fascinated by his cool and slick older half-brother Tommaso and he is obsessed about the main hero of a Supersex magazine. When he reaches the age of emancipation, he immediately joins his older brother in Paris and starts frequenting sex clubs, where he is spotted by the Supersex himself (Gabriel Pontello) and his dream becomes true!

The authors did a nice portrayal of the bizarre world of adult cinema. In addition, they captured the very essence of an age when adult cinema was also a political statement. The West, in general, went through it in the 1960-1970s, but Italy arrived late – only in the 1980s. Still, as almost everything else in Italy, it was in operatic proportions, including the election of Ilona Staller, better known as Cicciolina, to the Italian Parliament.

Real Rocco is a contradictory person – a married father of two, who earns his living in adult cinema. The interviews with Rocco shows a person, mired in Catholic guilt and childhood traumas (including the death of his brother). The authors were able to capture it, and I have nothing but praise for a portrayal of Rocco as a person who is tormented between conservative upbringing, love for mother, pain and primal desires.

Still, what about statement on modern masculinity? Here something is rotten in the state of Denmark. The story of Tomasso looks like as one-dimensional tour into so called toxic masculinity. In addition, I am not familiar with the story of Lucia, but it looks over-the-top exaggeration. Finally, the plot on how Rocco destroys ordinary women smells as a partisan statement. Nevertheless, Francesca Manieri didn’t descend too much into radicalism and tried to project an objective portrait, and this is a big plus for her.

 

In closing, let me say that «Supersex» is a decent periodic piece about the bizarre world of adult cinema and one of its most colorful representatives. As «Boogie Nights» it got the right balance of drama and comedy. Check it out, if you are not a moralist or easily offended snowflake.

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[1] https://deadline.com/2024/03/netflix-italy-supersex-rocco-siffredi-tinny-andreatta-1235842929/

"Betty" (1992)

Pauvre Betty

Claude Chabrol had one problem – he made too much films and, because of that, somehow quantity began to dominate over quality. Claude Chabrol made masterpieces («Violette Noziere»), good films («Poulet au vinaigre») and mediocrities («La fleur du mal»). In what category you could place «Betty» - the last film of Chabrol with Stephane Audran?

In some Paris bar, a girl called Betty, who is wearing a rumpled Chanel suit, is drinking herself to death with whiskey. Some strange man, who calls himself a doctor, offers Betty a ride to a restaurant called Le Trou (The Hole). In this bar, Betty drinks even more, and meets a proprietor Mario and his lover Laure. Betty tells Laura that she was divorced with a son of a very rich and influential family.

At first, the film starts as a typical story about a poor peasant girl, who is thrown out by the spoiled prince. Claude Chabrol shows us a sad alcoholic and abandoned girl with harsh psychological childhood traumas – an ideal candidate for the couch at psychoanalyst’s office. And this family of rich bastards, who made Betty to waive her parental rights, is out to be guillotined as in the late XVIIIth century France.

There is a banal saying about incompatibility of people from the different parts of the society (classes, groups and etc.), that is why a dream of «marrying the prince» doesn’t always realized as wanted. Betty was able to jump above her head, but she an intruder in the world of aristocracy. She cannot live on the rules of the high society, family doesn’t quite accept Betty and she is even basically separated from the children, who are given to the maid.

Disorderly Betty is suffocated in such sterile atmosphere and she is thrown out as an alien element. After Betty enters Le Trou, full of desolate people, the Director starts adding extra colors to her portrait. Because of that, the viewer could get a quite different opinion about a poor peasant girl.

What could you say about real qualities of Betty? In order to answer that, you ought to watch «Betty» and break the cliché that the nature relaxes on the children of the talented (on example of Marie Trintignant). Because of the duo of Marie Trintignant and Stephane Audran, Claude Chabrol was able to shoot a great film with unpredictable ending, which is quite a match to «Violette Noziere».

"Paths of Glory" (1957)

France cannot afford to have fools guiding her military destiny

Stanley Kubrick was an anti-war person and he found a right way to express his views. He didn’t shoot films with boring explanations of war horrors, he made films about the real war – with filth, cruelty, blood, destruction, suffering and death. All those elements were present in the fourth Stanley Kubrick’s film – «Paths of Glory».

After a German’s army defeat in the First Battle of Marne, the Western Front became entrenched all the way from the Swiss border to the English Channel. There were a lot of battles, where tens and hundreds of lives were sacrificed for a few hundred yards. In 1916, the both sides were looking for a way to get out of this trench warfare.

In the beginning of the film, General Georges Broulard, a member of the French General Staff, orders General Mireau to capture a well-defended German position called the «Anthill». At first, General Mireau, understanding the high casualty rate of his regiment and the suicide character of the attack, refuses, but changes his mind after General Broulard promises him promotion. Colonel Dax is ordered to execute the attack, who also understands it’s suicide character, but order is an order. The attack is a bloody disaster and furious generals are setting up a court-martial in order to execute three soldiers for cowardice.

 During the Battle of Passchendaele (1917) there was a tale about a furious colonel of the British General Staff, who arrived at the field in order to understand, why soldiers are not eager to execute his plans. After witnessing the horrible battle conditions, the colonel… cried. Despite such sentiments, the Allied casualty rate for this battle was about 508 800.

The film depicts staff officers, who are living in the chateaus, drinking cognac and preparing plans for the glorious final battles. For them front-line soldiers and officers are just merely units, who could be sacrificed for the sake of plans. From the other side, the front-line troops are suffering from typhoid, hunger, dehydration and enemy artillery, but they forced to execute suicidal attacks and tolerate the allegation of cowardice from clean-shaven aides of generals.

When new suicidal attack becomes a bloody disaster, the staff officers will never take the blame, they would shift it to executors. In order to punish, they would court-martial three random soldiers. The staff officers don’t care about past accomplishments of the executed soldiers, they just to show their resolve to politicians, newsmen and the French nation in general.

The war is an ideal plant for all low, cruel and mean. Especially for low-lives, who become commanders with ability for death sentences. The incoming trial gives certain officers an opportunity to get rid of the soldiers, who saw their cowardice. Nevertheless, the officer corps includes officers, who care about their soldiers, including Colonel Dax.

Colonel Dax lives in trenches and leads his soldiers in a battle. An ex-criminal attorney Dax is willing to do anything in order to save his soldiers from injustice. He becomes a defender in court martial, but this court is not legal. This court is not fair and it doesn’t have the presumption of innocence; those judges have already sentenced those three soldiers to death.

The real world is not very rich with justice, and there is no justice during the wartime. The determined loner cannot break the military-political system; he could just break one little interchangeable element. After such pyrrhic victory, he, along with the troops, would be sent back to the front lines, where, in the best case, they would be killed, or, in the worst case, they would by gravely injured.

The refrain of «La Marseillaise» urges citizens to arms, to form battalions, and water the furrows with impure blood. In the XVIIIth century, France was invaded by the neighbors, so that war was, at least at the beginning, just. Most of the other wars are made for other people’s interest and the wasted soldiers are forgotten as old cars. If more directors made such films as «Paths of Glory», than the viewers wouldn’t be too receptive for military propaganda.