Italy, Re-Viewed: Pt. II

In the early years of my Italian infatuation--the late '70's and early 80's--I was admittedly somewhat indiscriminate in my adoration of Italian culture. This time around, I came back with some changed perceptions of Italian-produced movies, TV, popular music, and politics--the important stuff.

Language and Italian Culture

Italian is a relatively-significant modern language (top 20, anyway), but production in that language has really a one-nation market. That's a relatively unusual combination: I'd say the one most like that is Japanese, followed by Russian (I haven't studied the national languages of the other former Soviet republics, but I'm guessing all have another official language that's more local) and German (which is also the language of Switzerland and Austria, for example).

The result--and you can also see this in the other languages I mention--is that there is a parochial, shared-national-identity expressed throughout much of the popular arts. Seeing the films, say, of Italy or Japan (or Poland, perhaps) is a good way to get to know the culture, but there is rarely much commercial success for these artistic products outside the home country.

Popular Music: A Vulnerable Island

I think it's safe to say that the integration of rock into Italian popular music has been difficult and remains incomplete. The successful Italian popular musicians who use the sonic language of rock at all bring a fusion approach--jazz, blues, or folk--to it, and arguably it is these other threads which actually make them popular there.

The enduring tradition in Italian popular music is that of the televised music festivals. These are like a latter-day American Bandstand, with performers or groups doing just a song or two, except much more formal. It's important in these to appear serious, which moptop rockers don't pull off too well. So, the whole thing lacks something in terms of good old Dionysian excess, i.e. fun.

My old favorite, Lucio Dalla, remains, but his more recent songs don't seem to have quite the zing of the '70's hits. Dalla is a folk-rocker with an ironic tone and a croaky kind of voice--a variation on Dylan, perhaps.

I was relieved to see that my old nemesis (in that he seemed everywhere on the radio when I had to listen to that for tunes, like on the beach) Adriano Celentano, has receded and is now considered more an icon than an active source of musical enjoyment. Celentano's style is a Neapolitan cross between Sinatra and Springsteen--very winning for the ladies--and his performances pedestrian pseudo-passion.

In the '80's, I saw that Julio Iglesias made a serious effort to penetrate the popular music market with Italian-language ballads. He found that they were hungry for product. I believe Charles Aznavour had similar success previously moving over from France. Someday there will be an Italian-American band that will record a major hit in decent Italian and they will have secure royalties on their library forever (through TV use).

Italians love music, are musical. Strangely, there is a long tradition of really bad vocals from popular musicians. On the other hand is a second tradition of highly musical voices singing real schlocky stuff, Andrea Bocelli being an extreme example.

Films: The Wave Recedes

Italian film as a serious project arose after WWII. Rossellini, DeSica, then Fellini--the critics called their movement neo-realism. Also as a commercial endeavor, with the likes of Sergio Leone. Italian was the lingua franca of the spaghetti western, but making room for foreigners to deliver lines phonetically or in their own language. Italians seem never to have cared if their language was dubbed in.

By the time I stepped in, Rossellini and DeSica were gone, and Fellini's fantastic movies couldn't be called any kind of realism. They were a fun ride, though.

In that period, though, the hot artistic directors were Bertolucci and Antonioni, but there were also some others of note: Zeffirelli, Olmo, Pontecorvo.

There were such things as popular political movies in that era--comparable to, say, "Shampoo". Popular satire, light or heavy. A good example was Lina Wertmuller's "Swept Away..." (not the Madonna version) which played out the perennial Italian North-South division through a beautiful, blond Milanese elitist woman stranded on an island with a gruff, Sicilian, ship crewman. I knew it was bad, but I ate it up.

Another reliable product of the time period were the movies featuring such Italian beauties as Loren, Lollobrigida, then later Laura Antonelli or Ornella Muti. I miss these!

The only Italian movie which has come across the international transom in recent years is "Life is Beautiful" by Roberto Benigni. There were only two local products in theaters this summer: a summer T&A film and "Gomorra" (see book review and political discussion to follow in Pt. III).

Television

I guess I didn't expect much back then, because I realize now that Italian television is just as bad as it was then. I guess I was glad to find anything back then, when the commercial channels (not the national network, RAI, which has 3-5 channels) were just starting to get widespread reception and some kind of following.

Now, there are lots of channels and Mr. Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, owns most of them (supposedly operated separately from his governmental duties). That's why Berlusconi's Pickle--the continuing criminal investigation, which is currently focused on his Palin-like forcing of a RAI directorship position--has some traction. His TV is lousy, and he should pay for it!