Film Review
Just a few years before he found international acclaim with his
neo-realist masterpieces
Sciuscià (1946) and
Ladri di biciclette (1948),
Italian film director Vittorio De Sica enjoyed success in his home
country with somewhat lighter fare, such as this enchanting (and
slightly anarchic) comedy.
Un
garibaldino al convento reunites De Sica with the magnificent
Carla Del Poggio, the star of a previous feature,
Maddalena, zero in condotta
(1940). It is just one inspired casting choice of many, with
María Mercader perfect for the part of Del Poggio's schoolgirl
rival and Leonardo Cortese looking suitably heroic and vulnerable as
the wounded Garibaldi partisan of the film's title.
At the time the film was made (in the early 1940s) Italian filmmakers
were highly constrained in the choice of subjects available to
them. Essentially they could either make pro-Mussolini propaganda
films or crowdpleasing comedies. In either case, the films had
only a tenuous connection with real life as it was experienced by most
Italian people at the time, although the more daring film directors and
screenwriters did occasionally try to smuggle a subversive subtext past
the censors. In
Un garibaldino
al convento, a film that revolves around two wayward girls who
risk censure by coming to the aid of an injured soldier in Garibaldi's
army, it is not too difficult to read an allegory of defiance against a
regime that had outstayed its welcome.
Very different in style and tone to De Sica's subsequent neo-realist
films,
Un garibaldino al convento
is more in the tradition of classic Italian comedy, with some
unimaginably funny comedy set-pieces punctuating a well-oiled narrative
that treads a thin line between farce and tragedy. The film ends
not with a laugh but a cruel emotional wallop, and De Sica's penchant
for expressing human suffering, so visible in his neo-realist films, is
keenly felt in the very last shot of the film. It is a poignant
coda, so subtle and yet so immensely powerful, which announces the
arrival of a truly great filmmaker.
© James Travers 2014
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Next Vittorio De Sica film:
Sciuscià (1946)
Film Synopsis
Returning to her childhood home, an old woman recalls happier times
when she was a young boarder at a convent in Italy in the 1840s.
Caterinetta Bellelli was always something of a rebel, keeping pets that
she shouldn't and reading books that were not suitable. She makes
an unlikely friend in Mariella Dominiani, a fellow boarder who also has
a rebellious spirit. One day, a wounded soldier in Garibaldi's
army seeks shelter in the convent and Caterinetta and Mariella take
turns to nurse him, taking care to keep this from the nuns.
Caterinetta is shocked to discover that the soldier is her friend's
fiancé, Count Franco Amidei...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.