ju st entertainm eiit
But is it about life?
Modern family no longer a source for drama
BY
R I C H A R D
F R A N C I S
recent media article lamented that
although the majority of Americans are
blue collar workers, the only television
programs with blue collar characters are The
I Simpsons and The Roscmne Barr Show. The
underlying assumption is that our entertainment
should reflect life. In post-World War II Italy
' there existed a school of cinema which shared
that point of view. It was called neo-realism. It
found drama in the lives of the common people,
often the lower and non-working classes, as
well as the destitute. If you are unfamiliar with
its major proponents such as De Sica and
Rossellini, you might know it in some of its
hybrid forms in the prc-La Dolce Vita films of
Fellini, or (with a French new-wave twist) in
the early films of Truffaut (such as 400 Blows).
The landmark work of neo-realism is consid
ered to be Vittorio De Sica’s 1949 film The
Bicycle Thief.
Maurizio Nichetti’s The Icicle Thiefbcgxns
with a pedantic and non-informative prologue
which says it is an homage to De Sica’s film,
but which also, in a maniacally slapstick style
reminiscent o f Buster Keaton, introduces us to
the film’s Woody Allen-like Italian director
who has recently turned from comedy to
“serious” film, here touching his neo-realist
roots (just as Allen would do in his ongoing
homages to Bergman and Fellini). And we arc
about to see the film on Italian television. The
Icicle Thief suddenly shifts to black and white,
and as the titles go by, we see the beginnings of
a lovely recreation of old neo-realism with
slightly more modem cinematic values. Since
we are watching it on television, we see it with
commercials. We also see it from the home of a
modem Italian family, and from the studio
which is broadcasting the film, and where the
director sits in increasing frustration as his film
begins to decompose in its modem commercial
setting.
That this film is an homage to The Bicycle
Thief, as well as to De Sica’s Umberto D, need
A
not be a threat to you if you do not know the
sources. In a lovely homage twist, Nichetti
illustrates De Sica’s own turn to dark comedy,
thereby turning his own homage into a dark
delight which can be hysterical even if you
don’t know how deep the joke can go.
As the television commercials begin to
interrupt the film, the director begins to
complain. Here the concerns of the real-life
director and the film director converge, for as
the commercial and film images mix and flow,
they become confused. At first it is simply the
1940s family desiring the items in the 1980s
commercials that invade their lives. But then a
model from one of the commercials acciden
tally falls into the movie causing the mother in
the film to flee, in jealous anger and despera
tion, into the commercial world where she can
fulfill her dream of being a pure performer. The
plot, which we have been told in the prologue,
is lost in this new disaster. The characters stay
in character, and the plot stays amazingly true
to neo-realist film. But this is not what its
original writer/dircctor intended. Angered, he
invades his own film to correct it. What he docs
not take into account is that once he becomes a
character in his own film, he is no longer the
untouchable ‘god’ manipulating these people’s
lives. He becomes a direct threat that they can
put their hands on. The plot he wants, after all,
is to destroy the entire family; to turn their
father into an auto-accident victim; turn the
mother into a prostitute; turn the children into
orphans. In his eyes he is expressing a neo
realist sympathy for their horrible plight. For
them he is just a man with evil intent for their
already troubled lives. Trust me; this is
presented with laughter to tears. And we
haven’t touched upon the family-who-watches.
If there is any other strong statement in this
film, among the many, it is the sharp, satirical
barb that the modem common family may no
longer be a source for drama when its primary
shared concern seems to be the issue of what is
happening that evening on television.
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This is a benefit for
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just out W 33
r October 1990