Commedia all’italiana, or as translated as “Comedy in the Italian way,” was the new genre Italian cinema developed following the Neorealism period in the years right after the war. From the late 50s to the end of the 70s, Italian directors used their new freedom to tap into areas once forbidden by the dictatorship and the Catholic Church that was under the iron grip. Federico Fellini used elements of the Commedia in his works during the period, but the real handlers were Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Pietro Germi, and legendary neorealist Vittorio De Seca. These are reflective in Italian culture, set around the disillusioned and poor in dire circumstances, characters who are cheap, can be easily deceived, or just plain stupid, and with a finale where the characters are back to where they started, or are in a false sense of hope. The slate of films touch upon contemporary and historical matters where nothing is immune to getting prodded at.

Juggling Lovers

Divorce was not legalized in Italy until 1970, but with the subject of mistresses and finding love outside of marriage, it was a topic full of conceptions and loopholes. Divorce, Italian Style is a masterpiece of the genre, mocking the act of one who finds their spouse in the act of committing adultery and kills them in a crime of passion, which would be a lesser jail sentence because it was the killer reclaiming their honor. Here, Marcello Mastroianni plays a man who falls in love with his young, attractive cousin but is married to an ugly woman, and fantasizes about how to kill her. He decides to get find someone who can seduce his wife so he can actually kill her in retaliation, freeing him to marry his cousin. Director Germi won an Oscar for his screenplay, one of the few for a foreign film, and would follow it with Seduced And Abandoned. In a small Sicilian town, a woman sleeps with her sister’s fiancé and feels bad for doing so. When her parents find out, she is forced to marry the fiancee in an act of matrimonio riparatore, marriage rehabilitation, something part of Sicilian customs.

Vittorio De Secca would win another Oscar, shifting from the streets of rebuilding Rome in the 40s to the comedies about love in the 60s with Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Mastroianni and the legendary Sophia Loren played three different couples in three different scenarios as working-class, wealthy, and prostitute & client. It explores the connections and the fallacies people in each scenario have to face to what defines as love. Later on, director Lina Wertmüller explored love under isolation from the world in Swept Away, a story about a wealthy woman and a Communist boatman on a desert island, totally different in every category, falling in love and discovering the parts missing in their lives. Yes, that is the Madonna-Guy Ritchie movie that also remade the film, but part of that film’s failure is the style of comedy that could not be translated from its original form.

Third-Rate Gangsters And Thieves

Italy is known for the Mafia. There is also an underworld of criminality untied to organized crime, but criminals know each other well. A film that kicked off the Commedia all’italiana era was 1958’s Big Deal on Madonna Street, featuring Mastroianni (note the roles and directors he worked with), Vittorio Gassman, Carlo Pisacane, and arguably the most famous comedian from Italian entertainment, Antonio De Curtis, or known by his stage name Toto. Here, a gang of crooks, all who have served time for petty crimes, plan a jewelry heist which breaks apart slowly by ineptness and unplanned challenges. It was remade twice in Hollywood as Crackers (by Louis Malle) and Welcome To Colinwood (by the Russo brothers).

1962’s Mafioso is another crime comedy about a naive factory manager who visits his home in Sicily only to be drawn in to do a hit for the local Mafia. Like a comedy of errors and to sneak into the United States, this poor guy is asked to do it as a favor and because no one will suspect him, even though he’s never held a gun in his life. Vittorio Gassman also played Il mattatore, “The Showman,” as an actor who goes to jail for fraud – the only one to go out of a group who took part in it – and is introduced to prison life.

Satire On Politics

While Francesco Rosi took direct aim at the establishment over corruption and lies in dramatic fashion, others followed the path of Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator. In March on Rome, director Dino Risi follows two members of the Blackshirts following Il Duce to the capital. Recently joined the fascists, one is a believer, the other is an opportunist, but both see and comment on the odd behavior by fasicst officials while also trying to get away from them. The Boom by De Secca satirizes the economic growth Italy experienced in the 50s and 60s that does not take everyone under its wing and one person is caught up in it in debt while living a very high standard of life. To mock the planned coup led by a fascist in 1970, We Want the Colonels, directed by Monicelli and starring the notable Ugo Tognazzi, who also starred in March on Rome, poked fun at the fanatics who still admired Il Duce and the stupidity that led to the coup getting uncovered by the press, not the police.

Commedia Sexy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouUMr8w3SpA

Italian cinema also dove into sex comedies that were not afraid to show nudity and slapstick. As censorship dwindled and color film became the norm in the 1970s, these films were released to expose the really sexual anti-morals of the time, such as in ll merlo maschio, Secret Fantasy in the U.S. It presented voyuerism and exhibisionism in a positive light, differing from pornography as using nudity not for pleasure, but for entertainment. Pier Paolo Passolini’s “Trilogy of Life” all had scenes of nudity and sex-related plots, including the emphasis of eroticism in his adaptation of Arabian Nights. French actress Edwige Fenech became widely known for several sex comedies which Quentin Tarantino became a fan of (a character in Inglourious Basterds is named Lt. Ed Fenech); Anna Maria Rizzoli was a glamour model who starred in several films in the late 70s and early 80s, and many male comedians including Lino Banfi and Pippo Franco played a role in establishing the Italian sex comedy. If you can understand Italian or don’t mind not understanding it, you can watch above ll merlo maschio. 

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I’m starting something new this month where I’ll be previewing the upcoming releases by Criterion. It is always a treat to await the listings for the new releases to their collection. They always diversify the selections, even reissuing older editions, and some of them go to the Criterion Channel where people can view it there easily. The movies may change, but the excitement for every new film remains the same. So with that, he’s a rundown of what Criterion has in store for November.

The Daytrippers (1996)

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x54bnm9

Greg Mottola’s debut is a fun joy ride about a family who goes over to confront the father of an apparent affair with another woman. With the likes of Stanley Tucci, Hope Davis, Parker Posey, and Liev Schrieber, the trip becomes a one-day confessional from everyone that defines the family unity regardless of their dysfunctional state. Steven Soderbergh, who co-produced it, joins Mottola and gives commentary to the film, plus a showing of Mottola’s short film, The Hatbox.

Cold War (2018)

This had Criterion written all over it. One of the best films of 2018, Pawel Pawlikowski’s romance across two decades between communist Poland and France is an emotional ride where a singer and a musician seek love that is interrupted by state politics and conflicting careers. Gorgeous cinematography and the ravishing pace where it does not linger on, going from to scene as time flies by, Pawiklowski would’ve won his second Oscar if it weren’t Alfonso Cuaron and Roma. Yet, it is a must-have when it is out November 19.

Betty Blue (1986)

Jean-Jacques Beineix’s three-hour love story (it was released as two-hours, but Beineix got his director’s cut made) follows the crazy romance between an aspiring writer and his quick-tempered girlfriend, whose violent acts escalate as time goes on. Yet, they remain together for what is a hot, steamy affair in the pursuit of total freedom. An Oscar nominee for Best International Film, the release features an hour-long documentary on the making of the film that dives deep into the movie’s push for the carnal desires the lovers seek.

Now, Voyager (1942)

Bette Davis plays a young woman who remains living under the iron grip of her mother who feels unhappy and unloved. When she’s given the confidence to go out on her own for once, she takes a cruise and begins a romance with a man (Paul Henreid) stuck in a loveless marriage. It’s a wonderful melodrama that added to the legacy of Davis as the best actress of her day – and this before she was in the next movie below – and the release features historical commentary on the movie’s making and Oscar-winning score, plus a clip of Davis being interviewed by Dick Cavett.

All About Eve (1950)

Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s masterpiece on the backstabbing behind the scenes between two actresses (Bette Davis and Anne Baxter) should’ve gotten the treatment years ago. But now, admirers can get it and then some more with plenty of special features about the making of and legacy of the picture, plus about the career of Joseph L. Mankiewicz, one of the most successful filmmakers Hollywood has ever produced. With its sharp scenes on the rivalry that goes down, there won’t be a bumpy ride watching everything from this release.

Stay tuned for more Criterion updates, viewings, and wishes for the rest of the year and beyond!

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This is the eighth edition of some of the best works I have seen on the Criterion Channel and by now, if you have read them, you must understandably be tired of me praising it. But there is always something new to pick on and some of these films are worthy of your interest. I and TV don’t go well together because, well, there’s too much of it and it goes on for many seasons. But with the movies, it’s only a short fraction of your day to see and reflect or enjoy. And with this next batch of movies, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

America, America (1963)

Elia Kazan’s most personal film was influenced by his Greek uncle who survived discrimination in the old Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) to make a successful emigration to the United States. First written as a novel, he then took it upon himself to write, produce, and direct (and serve as narrator) the film, even with financial issues and on-location hostilities in both Turkey and Greece, who still are rivals over the long history of ethnic conflicts going back as far as Greece’s independence from the Turks almost 200 years ago. But Kazan, with the strong performances of mostly unknown actors led by Stathis Giallelis in the main role and in almost every scene, creates a stirring portrait of what it must have been like to witness repression, live underground, and scavage the streets for a chance to sail past the Statue of Liberty for a new life.

Monterrey Pop (1967)

This was put on the site right after the news that rockumentary master D.A. Pennebaker had died, aged 94. Personally, I was in love with Bob Dylan Don’t Look Back, so it made sense to see how he covered an entire concert, three days of the Summer of Love counterculture that defined the rest of the decade. Pennebaker captures Janis Joplin, the Who, Simon & Garfunkel, and Jimi Hendrix, who gave one his all-time great performances by humping his guitar, broke it into pieces, set it on fire, fell on his knees to let it rise, and then threw the neck of his guitar in the roaring crowd. A separate short documentary called Jimi Plays Monterey and Shake! Otis at Monterrey was later released but could be watched in conjunction with the original Monterrey film.

Female Trouble (1974)

John Waters’ follow up to the ultimate trash film Pink Flamingos is something a little more mainstream but is still completely absurd and made with the satire of what fame is about. This time, Divine plays a woman, impregnated at 18 and giving birth to a girl she neglects and hates, getting close with a couple who believes that “crime and beauty are the same” and is encouraged to commit crimes to make her famous. You see Divine play the man who impregnates the teen – in other words, he’s having sex with himself – and a scene in which the baby is born was from a newborn baby four days old. Only John Waters would do such a thing. One of the most famous reviews for any film and one John Waters loves to tail to the picture came from Rex Reed: “Where do these people come from? Where do they go when the sun goes down? Isn’t there a law or something??”

The Magic Flute (1975)

A blind spot in my Ingmar Bergman filmography, it is his own version of the famous opera by Mozart. A TV movie converted into a full-length feature, it was a smash hit in Sweden and around the world. It did not his usual actors like Liv Ullman, Bibi Anderson, or Max von Sydow, but his trusted cameraman Sven Nykvist was present in giving the opera something different, something not as if he made the movie right off the stage and witty to include insert shots of a singular audience member amongst a montage of different ages, backgrounds, and races entering the theater and even behind-the-scenes such a the smoking gag under a sign that says “Do Not Smoke.” Elements you wouldn’t see in a theatrical production come in and integrate the story with a formal movie style.

¡Alambrista! (1976)

If someone told you about this movie today, you would’ve thought it was made recently as the immigration situation has become a humanitarian crisis. When you watch it, you will know that it wasn’t made today, but it was made more than 30 years ago for PBS. And yet, it is super relevant because it gives the undocumented immigrant experience from their point of view and the struggle they have to survive. The writer/director, Robert Young, is not Hispanic, but his experience with documentaries capturing various stories on civil rights led his full-length feature in the same vein on Italian Neorealism – non-professional actors, on location, using simple camera shots on the ground to capture the feel of what was – and is still – happening along the Mexican border with workers during hand-picked labor to sending money to their families to survive. Edward James Olmos played a supporting role and would work with Young for multiple films later on.

Desert Hearts (1985)

One of the first wide-release films featuring a positive portrayal of a lesbian relationship, the story tells a woman in the middle of divorce goes to a ranch to get away and meets a younger woman that she falls for. Robert Elswit was the film’s DP and some of the beautiful shots show what he is highly regarded today. On the screen, Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau both are gentle and give performances that Gene Siskel praised as accomplishing what society hasn’t done before, “the de-sensationalizing of lesbianism.” The film is based on a novel by famed Canadian writer Jane Rule, who published it in 1964 at a time when homosexuality was considered a mental illness and Rule could face prosecution for censorship violations. Instead, the famous novel and the movie itself has proven to be a landmark in positive lesbian depictions.

True Stories (1986)

David Bryne of The Talking Heads went off to make his directorial debut is a musical satire through a series of vignettes in a Texas town celebrating the state’s independence from Mexico before statehood. Byrne plays a visitor who meets with the eccentric town’s citizens, which include John Goodman, Spalding Gray, and Pops Staples. Not surprisingly, The Talking Heads did the whole score and the songs, including their hit single Wild Wild Life. There’s some Coen Bros humor to it with certain descriptions and the look of the town, including Byrne playing the wondering narrator in a cowboy hat. Byrne was influenced to direct by Johnathan Demme, who directed The Talking Heads’ concert film Stop Making Sense and Byrne would later win an Oscar for the collaborative score to The Last Emperor.

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” So said Mae West, and so lived Mae West. Though her Hollywood reign ended decades ago, echoes of her life are still rippling through the universe. You’d likely recognize her swagger even if you did not recognize her face.

West is most well-known today for her string of Hollywood movies which saved Paramount from bankruptcy in the 1930s while simultaneously outraging those who claimed to want to preserve the moral fortitude of the United States of America. She typically played “women who accepted their lives of dubious virtue with flippant good humour” (Encyclopædia Britannica) which did not always sit well with the men who ruled the country – and the airwaves. But before she outraged America, she outraged New York City.

In 1926, West wrote, produced, directed, and starred in a Broadway play. The play featured prostitution, bribery, murder, rape, and drunkenness, to name just a few plot points. The protagonist, played by West, was described in a Variety review as “the Babe Ruth of stage prosties” (Rich). The title of the play? Simply, Sex.

The politics of the Roaring 20s quickly turned Sex into a cultural phenomenon. After ten months on Broadway with mixed reviews but huge box office success, the theater was raided and the actors were hauled to jail. The charges: “unlawfully preparing, advertising, giving, presenting, and participating in an obscene, immoral and impure drama, play, exhibition, show and entertainment” (Carlson). West bailed the actors out of jail and had the opportunity to avoid all charges if she shut the show down, but she knew how to play the game and opted to face her judgement in court instead.

In true Mae West fashion, she arrived at the courthouse in a limo wearing garlands of roses. She then accepted her ten-day prison sentence with stone cold swagger: she applied rouge to her lips as she stood before sauntering out of the courthouse, cool-y telling reporters, “Give my regards to Broadway” like the badass babe she was. (Carlson). She then served eight days in jail, eating dinner with the warden and his wife and ultimately getting two days off for good behavior.

Near the end of her life, Mae West asked a reporter if he knew that she once spent time in jail. He responded that he did, and added that she was not an “ordinary prisoner.” She responded, “I was never an ordinary anything,” (Carlson) and no truer words have ever been spoken. If West was bothered at all by her stint in jail, she hid it well behind her wicked wit. She said that the other inmates provided her with material for more shows and admitted that she “enjoyed the courtroom as just another stage” (Carlson). Truly, for Mae West, all the world was a stage, and she had a captive audience waiting for more. From this tabloid scandal, a sex icon and American superstar was created.

West continued to write and star in Broadway plays in the years following the Sex publicity. All featured her trademark humor, and several added additional controversy by featuring homosexuals and drag queens. However, not content with her Broadway career, West moved to Hollywood in 1932 and signed a deal with Paramount when she was nearly 40 years old. This was no small feat in 1930s Hollywood, which considered 30 to be a woman’s “advanced years” (biography.com). Regardless, West signed the deal with Paramount in 1933 and, by 1935, she was the second highest paid person in the United States. The only person in the country receiving a higher paycheck was none other than William Randolph Hurst (Burns). The censors, however, were not fond of her overt sexuality and famous innuendos. She soon became a target of the Motion Picture Production Code (biography.com).

West’s publicist, Emily Wortis Ledier, once said of West, “She loved big cities, form-fitting clothes, lipstick, jazz, sex in taxis, intrigue, gun-toting bootleggers, boxers lathered in sweat, and cops who read her the riot act” (Carlson). But there was more to Mae West than a wild and sexual spirit. Underneath the humor and the scandal and intrigue, West was fighting against ignorance.

West maintained her sultry, bawdy humor throughout her career and fought against the censors every chance she could, believing that the plays and movies that she wrote and the characters that she played served the direct purpose of educating a nation. In 1929, West wrote, “Because of narrow-minded censors and silly taboos the people are unable to learn truths they are starving for…They know nothing about sex at all, for the subject is hidden from children, kept out of our of books and schools and education” (Louvish, xiv). She went on to say: “I realized the problem and I devoted my career in the theater to the education of the masses. I shall boldly continue to do so, in spite of criticism, insults, and narrow-minded bigots” (xv).

Mae West was a sex icon and a comedian, but these statuses were mere byproducts of her bold, uninhibited desire to be herself in a world that tried to tell her that she was unacceptable and should hide what she had to say. She was an inspiration within her lifetime, but continues to be one today. She may have only lived once, but her legacy cannot be contained to one generation. She was bold. She was fearless. She was wild. She was Mae West.