Hello Fellow Film Lovers,
Please join us for Cinema Insieme's presentation of Lamerica (1994) on Monday March 28th at 7pm at the Pearl Company.
Two Italian racketeers come to Albania just after the fall of the communists to set up a fictive firm and pocket the grants. They need a stooge. They choose an old one in a jail : Spiro. But the youngest Italian, Gino, once alone with Spiro, encounters a few problems. Far from his roots, losing his identity in deep Albania, he begins to change.
"Lamerica" takes the audience through the devastation of post-communist Albania as it follows the odyssey of a young Italian man who has come to make some easy money but finds himself caught up in the same curious mix of hopeful despair etched into the faces of people he's come to swindle.
Directed by: Gianni Amelio ( Le chiavi di casa )
Presented by: Professor Ernesto Virgulti
Admission: $10 ( includes wine and cheese reception after the film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110299/
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Last night's presentation of Lamerica was one that took me by surprise. It piqued my interest at the beggining as we followed the story of the two swindlers. It then went into a no man's land as we followed Gino (young swindler) & Michelle (the Chairman / President) on their Odyssey. I asked myself, what is this film about, where is it going, what is the significance of the Michelle character? It all came together for me in the last 30-40 minutes as we saw that this was really a film about the immigrant experience and what drives people to leave their homeland and venture out to the land of milk and honey. This film was multi-layered and there is so much to say about it. Where do we begin....
ReplyDeleteI have seldom watched a film that made me feel as uncomfortable as Lamerica did while watching it. Yet, the film was brilliant in the development of its themes.
ReplyDeleteIt is a film about self-discovery. The protagonist is the young man, Gino, who enters into the scene as a willing co-conspirator in a scheme to swindle the Albanian authorities out of some cash to begin a fictitious shoe-making enterprise in that impoverished land.
Gino is young, brash, arrogant and has the trappings of some affluence,at least compared to the citizens of Albania.
His is a journey of disappointment and suffering. He loses his car, his money, his clothes and even his identity when the Albanian investigator takes away his passport.
And yet, as he loses all of that, he gains empathy for the plight of the Albanian immigrants. He becomes one of them.
The double irony, of course, is that the old Italian soldier has already gone through this transformation and loss. He is old, has lost 50 years of his life in Albanian imprisonment, isn't sure if he is Italian or Albanian, engages in the ruse to be "Chairman" of the fictitious company, even temporarily dons the trappings of such a high position when he is given a suit and new shoes to play the Chairman's part, but in his senility, sees through the scheme. At one point he says, "How can one earn a living by just signing a few papers?" Indeed, how can one? One cannot. And the young Gino finds that out too as he heads towards Italy like the rest of the dispossessed immigrants.
The final irony which really makes the point about self discovery is felt when the old man, in one of the final scenes, tells Gino that he wants to be awake when the boat lands in New York. His confusion beautifully connects Gino and the viewers to Italy's history of immigration and suffering.
Shakespeare's King Lear presented the theme of being stripped of all earthly possessions in order to gain self-awareness. Lear was a king and became a 'zero' before he truly understood who he was and what motivated those around him. Gino isn't a king in the regal sense, but he was a royal swindler. He is stripped of all of that and learns empathy, the most human of all traits.
A brilliant film.
Larry,
ReplyDeleteyou never cease to amaze me. I always look forward to your comments.
I think you would be a wonderful addition to Franco and Ernesto's thoughts and provoking questions at the end of each film.
I thank-you for your gift and insight.
Looking forward to sharing future films.
Joanne