Wow. That’s all I can say. This film was so powerful and just amazing − a really beautiful, yet sweet tragic tale. And this is due to the characters, the little boy Prico − he was simply endearing and so honest and innocent he made me cry at the end of the film. “She’s gone” − that is the simplicity of the film − no built up complex narrative just the lives of individuals, the almost banal, everyday life of individuals made so significant. I truly understand the concept and power of neorealism after a film like this. The falling apart of a family where the mother, Nina, is still in love with another man, Roberto, causing her husband strife and uncertainty in their marriage − this was believable and nothing out of the ordinary but just so amazingly portrayed. My sympathies truly lied with the young boy and his father but I have to mention the whole “cast” of non-actors, who I believe were remarkable. It really was as if every life is important, the opposite of Hollywood narratives. If anyone, then the child was the main focus but in a way he was also the victim. He was the reason for secrecy and carefulness about what adults said in front of him yet also the cause for them to stay together or stop arguing.
I expected the title to be symbolic but it really worked well and conveyed so much more than I thought it would − this whole film was such an unbelievably surprising experience. Nina leaving at the beginning, well that was a real shock − especially after spending such a wonderful day with her child at the park. So too, was utterly devastating the death (suicide?) of the father at the end. As soon as I saw the people gathered around I knew something was wrong but I would have never guessed it would end this way − such a sad, lost life and definitely no happy ever happy which I was so used to. I guess that made it all the more poignant − the fact the movie end after the young boy “rejects” his mother after being told the news of his dad.
The film was made in two parts, with the second part almost like a new beginning for the family as the father takes them to the beach to try and erase the painful past. A lot of clever camera work too, which I guess I didn’t expect. For instance, at the beginning when there is the meeting of people living in the apartment about the elevator, the camera never cut to a close-up of a particular person, whoever was speaking, but instead there were shots of groups of people in the frame so you could watch the reaction of others. I guess this is what Bazin, preferring the ambiguity of long takes, would have praised. Another sequence, was when the young boy was on the train and hallucinating from a fever about water, the flowerpot he accidentally knocked onto the Paulina’s head, the puppets he saw in the park and his grandmother saying she wanted tranquillity − everything was put together in a sort of montage, I think, but it was a really surreal glimpse into the boy’s mind very skilfully done. Also, in the restaurant, the camera scans across as people on the various tables talk, providing an interesting way of viewing the conversation. I also really admired the shot of the boy running from a drunk (and then the police) on the beach, with the water blurring and his silhouette so beautifully framed − just pure art.
This film, although tragic, just goes to strengthen my impression that the Italians really know how to do a tragi-comedy. I guess I can say in that way this film is in the same vein as Life is Beautiful, which is also so tragic yet has its subtle, everyday humour. It’s nothing like the exaggerated, obvious humour but everyday real smiles and light moments that just make the events so much more believable. Such as the scene when Prico is trying on a suit for boarding school, we see the sales assistant remove a hat from a boy, who for a moment, I thought was Prico, however we find out it was a mannequin.
I was cringing during the scene of Prico on the train tracks in the path of an incoming train, I thought to myself, “This can’t be the end of him!” And at least he did survive, his soul, his life, his purity and innocence survive the film, perhaps in the end adding a touch of hope. It is such a moving film which is romantic in a way too and I definitely rate it as a masterpiece to be seen. A real work of neorealism, a real work of life on the screen − I loved it.
4.5/5
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