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It's the simple
story of simple fisherman's family in a small simple Sicilian fishing
village. A Franco-Italian film, with a cameo appearance by two Frenchmen
on their sailboat, this film was obviously made by Frenchmen who love
Italy. It's almost propaganda for the Italian board of tourism, but
also acts to explain of the famous closedness to foreigners of this
region, without ever needing to go. In short, the community is unchanged,
refined like a diamond over time and this film seems made so as to help
us understand why the laws of nature have formed such a way of living
as is violently, proudly and passionately maintained by these Sicilians.
The protagonist (Valeria Giolino) is well-known, I've seen her before,
oh yeah, in Rain man!, she was sexy then, but never this incredible.
You fall in love with her, it's unavoidable. She plays the wife and
mother of this family. Her problem, and the problem of the film, is
that she is a little nuts. But the irony is every Sicilian in the village
seems to be batty, but she is crazy in ways that are different from
the others, ways that go against the traditions necessary to the smooth
functioning of this community "forgotten by time." Thus her craziness
is unacceptable such that they ask her to leave. She does nothing really
shocking. An example: when she wants to go swimming without a top with
her two boys in the ocean. The boys about 8 and 13 protest their mother's
immodesty, trying to force her to wear her cotton dress in the water.
But she insists on her nakedness and when other fishermen passing in
their speedboat see her, the whole town freaks out.
I won't ruin all the lovely little stories that happen between these
fascinating characters. I'll simply say that we are made in this film
to care deeply about each character so as to penetrate and know a place
that is often stereotyped and uncharted by foreigners. In the end, we
understand and even envy their "backwards" community. They have everything
they need! I was seized by noble savage nostalgia. Also, its simultaneously
intellectual and primitive. All the symbols of humanity occur naturally
in their story: the Oedipus complex, the subjugation of woman, the virgin
mary, man's burden. Putting these terms on the story like this in my
critique seems to me a raping of a beautiful story. I apologize. But
the images of this film show these problems in powerful physical personal
scenes such that I did not want to get up and leave the theater after
the film had finished.
The film is full of comedy and tragedy and lust and is a reminder of
man's intimate relationship with himself and this gorgeous earth.
Andrew
F.
version
française
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