The XXXVIII edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato proposed a retrospective entitled Pietro Germi: an inconvenient witness. A small selection of some of his works that well represent his directorial/authorial path and his vision of Italian society.
He was actually an awkward author, hard to pigeonhole. He did not adhere to neorealism, nor later to the Italian comedy. Although critics later included several of his works in the aforementioned genres. A path that could essentially be divided into two parts: the first tending towards the dramatic, the second totally dedicated to comedy.
Basically a career not dissimilar to that of Billy Wilderwho not by chance appreciated the comedies of Peter Germicostume whippersnappers just like those signed by the duo Wilder e I.A.L. Diamond. During his career, Italian critics have not paid much attention to the works of Peter Germiand only later did “the man with the cigar in his mouth” have its rightful place in the history of Italian cinema.
A solid genre director, he has ranged from noir to detective stories, from pseudo-westerns to road movies, up to two unexpected melodramas that are both masculine and passionate. Two works in which he is the same Peter Germi to play the gruff protagonist.
But he was also a witness – in his own way – of Italian society. First with dark tones, with hints of neorealism and noir approaches, then through social satire. A look, that of Germsfrowning, very bitter. It is mainly seen in his last works, the least successful ones. Seraph (1968) e Chestnuts are good (1970) are the testimony that Germs it was linked to a world that was disappearing. A world of small and genuine things (for example chestnuts).
The retrospective on Pietro Germi: an inconvenient witness between drama and comedy
The Cinema Rediscovered proposed eleven works by the Genoese director, exploring the different genres he has dealt with. An overview that allows us to see how Germsalthough “upright” was instead a flexible director, capable of embracing and supporting a genre with certain codes.
If you scroll through the short selection, it is clear that two fundamental works have also been excluded, namely A damn scam (1959) e ladies and gentlemen (1966). Two perfect films to show the uncomfortable and witnessing gaze of Germsbut it was preferred to replace them with other, earlier and equally effective ones.
The first proposed work is the short film, Anglo-Saxon Writers and Poets in Rome (1947). And unique in German filmography, a short documentary (about 9 minutes), a genre never taken up again by the director, which pays homage to the Allies. It is, let’s say, the political tribute of Germs to liberation and the end of the war.
A way, after the appreciated debut with The witness (1946) of almost metaphysical inspiration, in a style close to reality. Witness the present. An aspect that will be useful to him with the next Lost Youth (1947), a dramatic feature film that tells the story of the immediate post-war period.
The violence and privations of war have shaped a youth that has become cynical and abject. A film that in its premise is close to neorealism, but Germs with this film he already uses American cinema. In this case the gangster movie. The young protagonists are small-time delinquents with gangster attitudes and ways. A dark look, which does not leave much hope for an ethical and moral resurgence.
A film that was subjected to the harsh treatment of censorship and had little success, Germs redeems itself with the next one In the name of the law (1949). The filmmaker’s first look at the parched and closed Sicily, it is the first Italian film in which the mafia is discussed. It is not a neorealist staging, but in telling the problems that afflict Trinacria, the director uses western modules. The harsh Sicilian territory is similar to the American lands.
Peasants, landowners and laborers, are similar to farmers, to farmers and to the bandits of many westerns of the period. While the magistrate Guido Schiavi (Max Girotti) is a proto-sheriff who arrives in the town under siege. The charm of Girotti it is not dissimilar from that of the young man Henry Fonda.
A film that managed to combine a polemical and social discourse with a popular staging, so much so that the film was the box office hit of the season.
And from that poor and abandoned Sicily, Germs he sets out on a road movie on the edge of neorealism. The path of hope (1950) is a choral film with which the filmmaker describes the journey of some desperate people who are looking for a better present. From the deep south to the north of Italy. A group of men and women, who start out compact and slowly fall apart.
In a way with this movie Germs gave his contribution to neorealism, following in his own way, or rather, with American taste, the Zavattinian idea of stalking the individual. Stalking that becomes tailing with The city defends itself (1951), a “B-series” noir with which Germs highlights his love for American cinema.
A fast-paced plot in which thieves flee after a robbery, but like any self-respecting noir, not everything will be fine. It was a film snubbed upon its release and re-evaluated only decades later.
After this realistic glimpse through the noir atmospheres Germsafter the solid historical film The brigand of Tacca del Lupo (1952) and two incorrect literary transpositions, collaborates with the collective Half a century of love (1954). Episodic film focusing on various love stories of the early 1900s.
His episode, titled Guerra 1915-18as highlighted by the title set during the First World War. In a certain way it almost returns to the Sicilian atmospheres of The path of hopethat is, the love of two young people of humble peasant origins, in this case from Abruzzo. An episode that slightly anticipates the entrance into melodrama of Germsand with which he can experiment for the first time with the expressive possibilities of colour, but which he will subsequently use only in his last three films.
And love and its torments are told more fully in The railwayman (1956). It is a masculine melodrama, set in the working class world. Against the typical backdrop of much neorealist cinema, Germs investigates the feelings of these characters, tied to certain values and, not being bourgeois, incapable of fully understanding the changes.
A turning point in his cinema, and to give greater importance to the character, with his own political and amorous vision, the director himself plays the protagonist. As he will also do in the following The Straw Man (1957), another melodrama, and in the investigation A damn scam.
The importance of this film piece in the director’s filmography is also corroborated by the unreleased short The Railwayman Auditionsin which we see how Germs prepare for the part. And in which we discover how the main worry was that of the voice. Its timbre is not set and this allows for greater adherence between Germs man and fictional character.
The retrospective then jumps to the films that gave international success to the Genoese filmmaker. A return to Sicily, but this time with the formula of comedy. Divorce Italian Style (1961) e Seduced and abandoned (1964). Two works that should almost be considered as a diptych.
Playing – and rekindling – on the clichés that permeate Sicilian society (jealousy, fiery lovers, silence, cuckoldry, etc.), Peter Germi is unleashed by staging two films that castigate and mock those habits and customs. A way of doing things that is very close to the comedies of Billy Wilderin which there are no – totally – happy endings.
Con Divorce Italian Style had three Oscar nominations and won for Best Screenplay. With Seduced and abandoned the protagonist in Cannes Saro Urzi (only works in movies) Peter Germi) got the the Palme for best performance. The first film was also the subject of an American remake: American Divorce (Divorce American Style1967) of Bud York’s and parodied with Sicilian Divorce (1963) by Enzo by Gianni and with Tiberius Murgia.
Seduced and abandoned was parodied by the couple Franks e Ingrassiabut only in the title: Seduced and deceived (1964) by George White. While Saro Urzias the perfect image of a father-boss will be chosen by Francis Ford Coppola it is The Godfather (The Godfather1972) for the role of Don Vitelli.
Comedy as a tool to whip society and individuals will also be used to great effect in Ladies and gentlemen (1966), winner of the Palma d’oro a Cannes ex-equo con A man, a woman (A man and a woman1966) of Claude Chabrol. This time to mock, through a choral tale, the hypocritical vices of the Venetian people.
The above mentioned film is not present in the retrospective and was preferred The immoral (1967). This too was a poorly received work for a long time, only to be re-evaluated in the following decades. A comedy with a frenetic pace, but with darker tones. At times immoral, but substantially with a moral vision. The protagonist, although a bigamist, is an admirable man.
Compared to the previous films it seems like a film of Mark Ferrerialso because the protagonist is Ugo Tognazziin the usual role of a profiteering and fickle Italian male. It cannot be ruled out that the idea for the film may have come to Germs after watching Speaking of all these…ladies (Not to mention all these women1964) of Ingmar Bergman. That is, the funeral scene, in which all the protagonist’s women go to his bedside to pay their respects.
Unfortunately, this film already shows that cinema is Peter Germi is losing its power of testimony and discomfort. The next two films make excellent box office receipts, but they are dull love stories. While Alfredo Alfredo (1972), which should bring back the glories of Ladies and gentlemenis a comedy weighed down by a plot that fails to deliver the right mocking blows.
