RIFLE RANGE BOY

A Chiara (Italian; 2022) Director:  Jonas Carpignano That is what coming-of-age means. Growing up, we are imbibed with teachings of what is right and wrong. Our perception of the world is made, and we want to lead a life full of good virtues and abstain from negativities. Our first teachers about life, the future and the outside get a special honorarium in my mind. We placed them on a pedestal and became a  reference point in our future decision-making. Then we are slowly exposed to the outside world. We make friends. We become aware that life is not so straightforward after all. People do wrong things and are still cool about it. Our eyes are open to the reality of life. Suddenly our parents are not so saintly anymore. They have their gross shortcomings. The ideal world that we wanted to build becomes an unfulfilled dream.   We become another spoke in the world of misfortune. Did the parents do what they did for the family's well-being, for a better life, fully awar...

The Conformist (Il conformista, Italian; 1970) Director: Bernardo Bertolucci People are like sheep. They flock around each other, following their shepherd, not knowing that their shepherd has only one thing on their mind. That is, to protect the herd from the wolf, to fatten them and nicely line them up to the slaughter. The one thing that differentiates people from animals, their minds are so quickly malleable. With a bit of persuasion, they will bark, sing, bleat, dance or croak to the tune of their masters. Plato’s Cave Allegory, described in this movie, succinctly tells how we behave. In Plato’s original example, he told of prisoners who had never seen the outside world, tied by their hands to face a wall of the inside of a cave. From the silhouette that appears on the wall of human activity, of people playing and children eating ice cream, they imagine how the world is without ever setting foot outside their prisons. It is an imagined outside world that he imagines may be far from...

Rose Island (L'incredibile storia dell'Isola delle Rose ,  Italian;2015) Director: Sydney Sibilia The idea of a nation is something relatively new. Before the advent of 'print capitalism', no law prevented one person from sojourning another part of this God's wide world. People of a shared ideology or values would congregate to live according to their pre-set societal norms. These 'imagined communities' as described by Benedict Anderson, are created when a sufficient number of people share the same language, live in the same geographic space, adhere to the same religious faith or cultural tradition, decide to live together. A nation is born when enough people identify with it. The printing press legitimises the birth of nations. It is interesting to note that language was instrumental in developing nationalism at the infancy of the printing press. In the 21st century, however, political Islam seems to have transcended all borders. Brothers of Islam quiver wh...

The 10th Victim (La Decima Vittima, Italian; 1965) Director: Elio Petri Riding high on her fame as Honey Ryder, 1962 Dr No's Bond Girl, as the Ultimate Bikini Goddess, Ursula Andress continued making movies banking on her sex symbol status. She also appeared in the 1967 Bond spoof 'Casino Royale' as Vesper Lynd, whose grave we saw in 'No Time to Die'. In between, this Swiss vixen also found time to act in this B-grade Italian movie.  'The 10th Victim' is a futuristic movie set in the 21st century, where the world enjoys peace as society has managed to put a stop to wars. Man's predilection for violence is curbed by having society-sanctioned killing. Each person has the opportunity to kill ten people in a computer-drawn programme named 'The Big Hunt'. In five of the hunts, the selected play hunter and the other five, he plays the hunted. The hunter is given all information about his target but not the hunted. The hunted is clueless about who the a...

The Stranger (Novella by Albert Camus, 1942) Feature Film (Italian; 1967) Director: Marcello Mastroianni The last few years of his existence were not particularly pleasant. It started with diabetes which progressively affected his night vision. His occasional falls off his motorcycle, and a fracture shook his confidence. Progressively, the Penang roads appeared too hostile to his liking. He lost his independence when his children did not allow him to renew his driving and bike licences. From then on, things only went south. Two episodes of strokes later and a urinary bladder's tumour afterwards with the ensuing therapy made life more miserable. If that was not enough, the accidental falls, lacerations and worsening eyesight added to his misery and the people living around him. Many unsavoury words were hurled out of frustrations.  So, when the day of reckoning finally came, it was a relief of sorts. At least, that is how I looked at it. Released from the distresses of the mortal li...

The Conformist (Italian, 1970) Director: Bernardo Bertolucci With rhetoric like "you're either with us or against us!", there is a pressure for most of us to conform. The daily bombardment of an overdose of information in the social media puts its followers in a quandary. The urgency to submit to the flavour of the moment and to be on the right side of history is quite confusing.    No man is an island. Living in a society, we are all interdependent. When one's own survival is dependent on goodwill and patronage of the others,  he would not want to offend the others' sensitivity; he would just conform or at least appear to.  In the current world climate and the country's political scenario, the need to follow the majority is very real. Merely following the tide is, of course, less tiring. Fighting back and arguing your stand may sometimes be an act of futility. Arguing with stupid and zombies is never easy. It takes a certain kind of resilien...

The Mattei Affair (Italian, Il Caso Mattei; 1972) Heard about this guy through Hussain Najadi's autobiography. Enrico Mattei, a self made entrepreneur from a humble beginning. He started working in tannery industry at the age of 15 only to climb the social ladder to be a threat to the Anglo-American oil cartel. His path crossed with Najadi when both were trying to get Kuwait's oil industry going. Unlike Najadi who missed an ill-fated flight to cheat death in 1963, Mattei succumbed to one. This offering is an Italian documentary trying to outline the events leading to his untimely death. Foul play has always been suggested. Even the journalist who tried to investigate his death mysteriously disappeared and was never found. Enrico Mattei Growing up in WW2 Italy, he became Mussolini's Fascist party inactive member. He later became a Christian Democrat and a nationalist. He tried to sell the idea of mining methane gas in Northern Italy. Even though initially ridicu...

La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life, Italian; 1961) This is not your typical film with a beginning, build-up, climax, resolution and ending. This Italian flick is actually a sort of a diary of a week in the life of gossip journalist @paparazzi, Marcello. It narrates day to day account of his life. In between all that, we, the audience, are shown the decadent lifestyle of the the post WW2 1960s Italy with its outwardly religious outlook with wayward lifestyle being the order of the day. Poverty is rife amidst the lure and glorification of the lifestyle of the rich and famous. The opening scene of the film starts with a helicopter hoisting a statue of Jesus across an effluent neighbourhood mocking the second coming. Slowly we are shown Marcello's hectic schedule. He has to put up with a possessive and obsessive fiancé who keep on demanding attention from him. He has to divide his time between the demanding job and near suicidal girlfriend. The hero is no angel either. His roving eye...

Cinema Paradiso (aka Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, Italian, 1988) There was a time when nostalgia was a bad word. Individuals stuck in the memory of the past were considered medically unsound. Soldiers returning from the Great War who suffered from what we now term as post-traumatic stress disorder (PPSD) were said to be suffering from a disease called 'nostalgia'. On the other hand, many industries thrive on the memory of the past. Of late, there is a concerted effort to rekindle the memory of the past for economic reasons and to generate business. Even yours truly have been told not to be trapped in the past but to come out and smell the flowers. To them, I say, history repeats itself, and one who does not know where he came from will not reach where he is heading to! Anyway, this blog kind of glorifies the past and tries to rekindle memories of the bygone era. This is precisely what the story in this film is NOT advocating, in a way, at least. The movie starts with a mother...

Journey to Italy (1954) Director: Roberto Rosselini Continuing in her 'outcast' years in Italian neo-realism, Ingrid Bergman continues with another movie which essentially showcases what Naples has to offer to tourist - the villas, museums, the morbid past history and lazy pace of life. In this setting, Katherine and Alex (Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders), a British couple married for 8 years, drive to Naples to dispose off a deceased relative's property. We can see that they are undergoing a rough patch in their relationship. Their going to Italy and taking a long journey is their attempt at reconciliation and rekindling the spark. It obviously does not seem to be working. This uppity couple arrive in their Bentley driving through the country roads complaining about the bugs and unruly drivers. While waiting for a potential buyer, they mix with the upper crust of society, the rich, bourgeois and royalties. All that relaxing does not mend their relationship. On the co...

Europa '51 (Italian; 1952) Director: Roberto Rosselini I could never understand why my Aunt took upon herself to be the guardian of the homeless, the outcast and those shunned by their own families and society. I always thought that perhaps her only means of staying sane after going through a lot of upheavals in her life. Only at her funeral did I realise the extent her love touched so many hearts. In their books, she was a saint. This week also saw the passing of Malaysia's Champion of the Oppressed. She was always considered a trouble maker by the powers that be and even managed to put her behind bars. The fruit of her work, however, was only seen during her wake. There was no world leaders or novelties to bade her farewell but the immigrants and the small men of the society, the very people she was fighting for. This film acted beautifully by Ingrid Bergman during her exile days in Italy gives a possible explanation on why people do the things that they do. Irene Gira...

Stromboli (1950) This neo-realistic Italian film sparked the affair between one of my favourite actresses and Italian director, Roberto Rossellini. This union ended with an out of wedlock baby, which ostracised Ingrid Bergman for years at the Hollywood level. A neo-realistic movie ( Neorealismo ) would be one where the location of the set is amongst the poor and its use of non-professional actors. Here, in Stromboli, the setting is among a fishing community living on an island with a volcano. Coincidentally, it actually erupted during the shooting. Even though it tells a story of a Lithuanian refugee who gets herself in a marriage of convenience to escape internment camp, it questions life and God at a deeper level. It narrates the harsh reality of getting hitched to someone totally different in values, beliefs, way of life, and how he lives. Karin (Ingrid Bergman) finds herself living in a depilated house on an island with active volcanic activity. Her neighbours are unfriendl...

The Italian Key 2011 This film is now being screened in KL in conjunction with EU film festival. Well, it not my idea of a good movie. It may excite teenage female viewers who find joy in the likes of 'Mills and Boones' paperbacks or the 'Twilight Saga' where everyone is good looking and has unblemished facial skin! It has on its vitae a string of accolades, all from unknown festival and areas unrelated to story and acting, e.g. 'feel good' movie and music. I would agree that the view of the Italian country-side is simply breathtaking. The story and acting, however, is much to be desired. The heroine of the story is a 19 year old orphan who grew up in the UK with her guardian Max and his two evil daughters (hey, sounds like Cinderella!). When Max dies, she inherits a key which brings her to a small village in Italy named just like hers, Capella. After some research, she found that the key opens a castle. The mysterious village brings to her acquaintance 4 ...