Divorzio all'italiana
Genius!! Bravo! Bellissimo! That was one of the finest comedies I've seen - and I've seen a lot of comedies. Marcello Mastroianni plays Baron Cefalu, a guy who's tired of his needy wife and in love with his young cousin. Divorce is illegal, so at first he fantasizes about killing his wife - lots of fantastic shit, including sending her off to space in a rocket ship; phase one.
Phase two, he hears about a trial of a woman who kills her unfaithful lover. According to Italian law, it's excusable to kill if you're under intense rage, and you can get off serving 5-7 years. The baron decides that his wife must have an adulterous affair. He buys her a tight-fitting, lacy dress and parades her around town, looking for a suitable lover. "No, the Professor will never do," as the old Professor checks out her out. "No, not the policeman; no one involved with the law... Not the mob boss - is there no one else! an artist, maybe?"
Phase three, dream come true. It turns out his wife used to be in love with a painter, who had gone off to war 12 years earlier, but is back in town. So the baron hires the painter to do some work at his house. Brilliant sequences! The movie makes a total travesty of all the wrenching conflict and emotional turmoil of adulterous lovers struggling with their feelings, because the husband is in the background the whole time facillitating everything, and getting frustrated because his wife is taking so long to cheat on him!
Anyways, it's just too good that I can't even describe it all here. Nor do I want to give away too much of the movie, because you have to see it. It's hilarious, it's very smart, and at moments, it's even beautifully romantic.
I don't know what it is about these "manipulative fuck/monster asshole" stories, but truly, there's nothing in the world I find funnier. You'd think that after Asshole #2, I'd go numb with rage seeing that character reenter my life through print or film. That was sort of my reaction to Match Point - which admittedly was more of a tragedy - but I'd say my experiences with comic representations are nothing like that. Why is that? I know I've been fucked with an manipulated in the past, and I can even actively sympathize with characters like the baron's wife; in fact, I wonder if I would even enjoy the asshole stories as much if I hadn't personally been a victim of one before. I guess there's something about a total, perfect travesty - like Divorzio all'italiana - that makes the laughter outweigh the pain.
It's an interesting question about how we understand fiction and mimesis.
Phase two, he hears about a trial of a woman who kills her unfaithful lover. According to Italian law, it's excusable to kill if you're under intense rage, and you can get off serving 5-7 years. The baron decides that his wife must have an adulterous affair. He buys her a tight-fitting, lacy dress and parades her around town, looking for a suitable lover. "No, the Professor will never do," as the old Professor checks out her out. "No, not the policeman; no one involved with the law... Not the mob boss - is there no one else! an artist, maybe?"
Phase three, dream come true. It turns out his wife used to be in love with a painter, who had gone off to war 12 years earlier, but is back in town. So the baron hires the painter to do some work at his house. Brilliant sequences! The movie makes a total travesty of all the wrenching conflict and emotional turmoil of adulterous lovers struggling with their feelings, because the husband is in the background the whole time facillitating everything, and getting frustrated because his wife is taking so long to cheat on him!
Anyways, it's just too good that I can't even describe it all here. Nor do I want to give away too much of the movie, because you have to see it. It's hilarious, it's very smart, and at moments, it's even beautifully romantic.
I don't know what it is about these "manipulative fuck/monster asshole" stories, but truly, there's nothing in the world I find funnier. You'd think that after Asshole #2, I'd go numb with rage seeing that character reenter my life through print or film. That was sort of my reaction to Match Point - which admittedly was more of a tragedy - but I'd say my experiences with comic representations are nothing like that. Why is that? I know I've been fucked with an manipulated in the past, and I can even actively sympathize with characters like the baron's wife; in fact, I wonder if I would even enjoy the asshole stories as much if I hadn't personally been a victim of one before. I guess there's something about a total, perfect travesty - like Divorzio all'italiana - that makes the laughter outweigh the pain.
It's an interesting question about how we understand fiction and mimesis.
posted by Rex at 12:53 AM
2 Comments:
You get to watch all the fun movies!
With this class I'm teaching I have to constantly watch either ethnographies or really bad Hollywood stuff. This week was Dances With Wolves week. Ugh! It's such a tedious movie, but so useful for the class.
Next week I get papers from the students - they're analyzing the violence in Hollywood movies using anthro concepts. That should be fun, but I predict many hours of watching these terrible movies so I can understand what they're trying to say.
I've been having a good streak with TCM. The movies I watch on my own choosing are usually bad.
However, I have never seen Dances with Wolves, so there may be some hope for my tastes yet.
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