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All right then, let’s talk about cinema, in a country which in the past
has invested a lot on cinema, both in cultural and in production terms,
thus creating special waves of social communication within and without
the country, by stimulating the growth of Neorealism, Italian Comedy
and Spaghetti-Western, to name but a few unforgettable genres and without
mentioning the long rolls of exceptional artists linked to Italy and
to the seventh art.
Subsequently
a headlong decline
started and developed over several years, although, naturally, this
did not strictly apply to cinema, but, like the previous golden age,
it was of a broader nature. Besides, the Italian expression “E’ un cinematografo!”
[literally: “It’s a cinema”], or the other broader version “E’ tutto
un cinematografo” [literally: “It’s all a cinema”], are quite familiar
in Italy. Once, similar exclamations were heard quite frequently, and
I personally recall that, especially in Northern Italy, they were used
to convey the idea that lots of things where happening at the same time.
The cinema, the pictures on the screen, the audience in the stalls,
onlookers from the circle, represented the peak of enthusiasm, translated
in everyday-life terms. And in actual fact, cinema at its best still
represents this: it is always metacinema, a vehicle which enables us
to travel, to dream, to think, to associate ideas and so on. In short,
it is an extraordinary “excuse” (employed as such by those who are familiar
with its rules, the producer first of all, but also all the people involved
in cinema production) to say something, in positive or negative terms,
about something that is “outside the cinema”. Some cases, which have
recently been under everybody’s eyes, and which bear traces of a very
topical issue which therefore tears at the heart of cinema itself, both
strictly and broadly speaking, hardly require any comments: the first
tragic episode relates to the film “Hannibal” and to the case of the
seventeen year old student from Sesto San Giovanni who killed his former
girlfriend with a pocket knife, a horror which of course recalls quite
a different range of considerations. Still, the fact that so many people
had noticed that the young couple had recently seen that film together,
and that they had both been struck by a similar scene, cannot but suggest
dreadful presences in our collective imagery, especially that of a teenager
going through his/her most critical years. And to think that this film,
or rather the same contemporary mythology character of Hannibal Lecter,
is quoted by Francesco Rutelli, the premier candidate for the Center-Left,
to attack Bossi, along the far from original lines of a TV imitation!
“Oppose Hannibal/Bossi”, Rutelli cries out, without realising that in
any case Hannibal is a genius, even though a genius of evil, and with
these words he is doing Bossi a great favour in terms of communication.
And indeed Bossi, who probably has a superior intelligence quotient,
shies away from naming Rutelli Alberto Sordi, following the stylistic
features of the same TV imitations, because in any case, setting aside
the burlesque aspect, he would be strengthening his image within collective
imagery. The second metacinema case is that of the film “Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon”, which is based on videogame imagery and is the product
of the great knowledge of Ang Lee, the now famous producer of “Taiwan”,
structured within a dream-like/feminist atmosphere, which is referred
to with a strength and at the same time a gentleness blended with masterly
skill, and constructed almost as a China-Western prototype, exactly
as Sergio Leone did thirty-five years ago with spaghetti. But the underlying
issue is really the videogame world, which is referred to. We then have
“L’ultimo bacio” [“The Last Kiss”], an almost perfect piece of work
by Gabriele Muccino: here we find the hard core (possibly an almond
stone, bitter as it is) of the communication crisis between generations,
and, within one in particular, the thirty-year-old generation: a film
which is serious, true and accurate. And most certainly skilful, but
not to the point of appearing mainly the product of perspicacity. An
idea for the large screen needs to be adequately handled. Therefore,
not only a film. And our cases also include the gay Roman tale called
“Le fate ignoranti” [“The Ignorant Fairies”], which obliges those who
have the required cultural background to appeal to their own conscience
about my/your/his/her/our etc. homosexuality, with a lightness which
captures people’s attention and is supported by the talent of the Capitoline
Turkish producer Ozpetek. And even more complex and wide-ranging observations
should be made about Nanni Moretti’s last film, “La stanza del figlio”
[“The Son’s Room”], a painful reflection about existence, or an existential
reflection about pain, as you prefer. A masterpiece through the notes
of an author who still survives in times such as ours. Therefore, in
sequence, we have: collective imaginary with its links to evil and geniality
in one film, the videogame society in another one, the traps of the
generation gap in the next, the outside of the inside of the outside
of a gay commune in the following one, and the purpose of our existence
and of our suffering in Moretti’s last work. Just think of how thought
can circulate from Hannibal’s horror, to Lee’s women warriors, Muccino’s
collective existentialism, the man/woman described by the Turkish producer
and death as described by Nanni Moretti: this is the “stream” that flows,
the cultural breath that blows through the cinemas, this is the metafilmic
meaning that is demanded from this type of art; in short, this is what
I mean when I quote - and claim - that life “is really a cinema!”!”
(traduzione Interpres sas-Giussano)
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