Italians

 ((ITALIANI) (ITALIAN))

By DAVID ROONEY

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A Medusa release (in Italy) of a Videomaura production in association with Medusa. (International sales: Medusa, Milan.) Produced by Bruno Altissimi, Claudio Saraceni. Executive producer, Elio Manni. Directed by Maurizio Ponzi. Screenplay, Luigi Guarnieri, Melania Mazzucco, Ponzi.
 
Ulisse ... Giulio Scarpati
Margherita ... Giuliana De Sio
Maria/
Donatella ... Maria Grazia Cucinotta
Angelica ... Vanessa Gravina
Agata ... Tiziana Lodato
Fortunato ... Marco Leonardi
Don Vincenzo ... Claudio Bigagli
Leonardo ... Roberto Citran
Furio ... Ivano Marescotti
Edoardo ... Fabrizio Accordiano
Gaetano ... Lorenzo Crespi
 

An ensemble piece taking a microcosmic view of human nature via the passengers on a train bound from Sicily to Milan in the mid-1960s, Maurizio Ponzi's "Italians" is a nostalgia trip pulled by a rusty caboose whose engine runs on pure treacle. Audiences outside Italy may respond with less cynicism to this sentimental look at the recent past, but the heavy-handed drama's mechanisms are slipshod and transparent, making it unlikely to travel far.

Opening titles swiftly identify the film as a romanticized ode to days gone by, with a wash of syrupy music and golden-hued lensing as a train standing at Palermo station is scrubbed down prior to departure.

The simple but honest poor folks selflessly share their provisions along with their stories of home and their hopes of factory employment and relative security in the rich, industrialized north.

One of the principal stories tracked here concerns the daughter of a migrating Sicilian family, Agata (Tiziana Lodato), who's being simultaneously wooed by an ambitious aspiring policeman (Lorenzo Crespi) and by an idealistic dreamer (Marco Leonardi). Another focuses on the heavily pregnant Calabrian Maria (Maria Grazia Cucinotta), who raises spiritual doubts in the priest (Claudio Bigagli) who comes to her aid.

In first class, a "Brief Encounter" scenario of fleeting passion is played out by Margherita (Giuliana De Sio), a nurse on the run from romantic disillusionment, and teacher-turned-novelist Leonardo (Roberto Citran). In the sleeper cars, venal businessman Furio (Ivano Marescotti) keeps his young mistress, Angelica (Vanessa Gravina), hidden from his strait-laced son, Edoardo (Fabrizio Accordiano).

Presiding over this panorama of small human dramas is the train conductor, Ulisse (Giulio Scarpati), who relishes his work and the human contact it affords him. In a surreal interlude, he sees another train making the return journey from Milan to Palermo with many of the same passengers more than 20 years on. A shift in visual tone to cold, lifeless blues rather unsubtly underlines the script's bleak view of the turn contemporary Italy has taken.

Ulisse is now bitter and somewhat crushed by his experience, and the outcome of most characters rather over-explicitly endorses his jaded worldview. But others have defied destiny by making good on negligible prospects, changing the course of their lives completely.

Ponzi's aims appear consistently honest, and the saccharine nature of the material feels less calculated than ingenuous in its rose-tinted view of a nation's lost innocence. But the film is ploddingly slow and hasno dramatic backbone. Too many climactic moments, like the birth of Maria's child or Edoardo's shocked discovery of his father's infidelity, are badly mishandled.

The high-profile cast is wasted, with even the most talented players featured here seeming helpless against schematic material that provides no depth for any of its characters. Period production values are sharp enough but compromised by the cramped conditions of shooting on an actual train rather than a set, much of the time forcing the camera down the actors' throats.

Camera (Cinecitta color), Maurizio Calvesi; editor, Sergio Montanari; music, Bruno Zambrini; art direction, Virginia Vianello; costume design, Raffaella Fantasia; sound (Dolby), Stefano Savino; assistant director, Gianluca Mazzella. Reviewed at Intl. Recording screening room, Rome, Feb. 9, 1996. (In Berlin Film Festival -- Panorama.) Running time: 98 MIN.