Gosh, has it only been 3 weeks since I got back from my road trip? Seems like a lifetime away. I always feel this way coming back from a vacation. Feels surreal and a distant memory the moment I got back to my routine life. Does this happen to you too?
Anyway, I got a night off from mommy duty last night and I went to the screening of a 2014 Italian film called Piu Buio di Mezzanotte at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Westwood Village. I used to take Italian classes there. I’ve always been impressed by how well the organization is run. They always have very good Italian movie screenings (often with guest directors or actors), Italian art exhibits etc. What made it more impressive is the constant support and good turnout by the Italians to those events. Coming to these events over the years made me see how united the Italians are. They are proud to be Italians, proud of their food, their movies, their cities, their history, their culture. Bingwei talked about soft power. This soft power by the Italians, it’s strong. I’m proud to be a Singaporean, and we have many things we can be proud of too. Somehow we are not a nation that stands proud and united. Maybe it takes time. Maybe it takes effort. Maybe I can do my part and make the Singapore soft power a little stronger in Boston.
Back to the movie discussion. The assistant director was there and he said they auditioned 9000 kids over the course of 2 years before casting Davide Capone. My take on it is that it is very distinctly Italian. I remember the first time I saw the 1948 classic Ladri Di Biciclette and I saw the ending, I was like, wait a minute the movie has ended? It seems to me the director did that to let us know that this is life, it goes on. There is no Hollywood happy ending. Such a style can be seen in other Italian movies that have a heavy theme like the one I saw last night. This movie explores the heavy theme of a boy outcast by his father and his mother could do little to protect him against the father. It reminds us how in certain cities in Italy where the traditional family and religious values still hold strong, the world can be a cold, hard place if you are not a part of the status quo. What made the movie great to me personally was not the story it was telling. It was how the story was told. It drew a lot of parallels to other social issues and problems we often forget. There is a line by the l’uomo in bianco, “you need a protector”. Most of us are lucky enough to be born into families with at least one loving, self-sacrificing parent. That is our protector. Throughout the movie, I was thinking if I didn’t have that someone to take care of me, put food on my table, give me a roof over my head right from the start, how can I possibly make it in this cold, unforgiving world?
If you have seen Piu Buio Di Mezzanotte, please share your thoughts and takeaways with me.
chewingvampire 