Good morning Babilonia

Now that the last of the Taviani brothers has died, they seem almost forgotten. They were however one of the great storytellers of the cinema of the '70s and '80s.

In "Good morning Babilonia" they tell the story of two stonemasons out of work in Italy after finishing their last job of restoring a cathedral. They emigrate to the USA and after some wanderings become set builders for the Babilonian episode in D. W. Griffith's "Intolerance" (1916).

Apart from the plot element of emigrating from Italy to America, a common plot element from the Taviani's (see for example the first episode of "KAOS" (1984)), the film tells the story of early Hollywood. Incidentally another film about early Hollywood is called "Babylon" (2022, Damien Chazelle). This association of Hollywood with the old Babylon is no coincidence. In the first place Babylon and Hollywood are both associated with decadence and moral debauchery. Secondly it may also have something to do with the Biblical story of the tower of Babel, containing the elements of pride and multilingualism.

"Good morning Babilonia" is not one of the best movies of the Taviani brothers. The story of the old Hollywood is too light footed, the ending is too sentimental and the theme of the brothers that try very hard to remain equal in order to give jealousy no chance (until fate decides otherwise) is too artificial (even their wives become pregnant in sync).

I wonder if with respect to the brother element of the story the Taviani brothers may have refered to themselves. Just like the Coen brothers (until recently) they always shared the credits of their films.

The one element in this film that in my opinion is vintage Taviani is the pride of the craftsman. The scene early in the film of a group of craftsmen celebrating the completion of the restoration of the cathedral and at the same time mourning about the fact that there is no next job trembles with anger and disbelief. How is it possibe that there is no job for craftsmen that are so good at their job! Later in the movie the father of the two main characters meets the famous director D. W. Griffith. The scene is all about a battle of ego's. The father is of the opinion that he may be less famous than the director, but with cathedrals he makes things for eternity whereas the director makes something fleeting as a film.

As a matter of fact "Intolerance" (1916) is still considered a masterpiece, so it wasn't fleeting after all. The message of the respect that is due to a craftsman remains loud and clear. This message is unfortunately limited to the scenes with the father, and these are too few to save the movie from mediocrity.

The idea, at least, was intriguing: to recreate the magic and decadence of early Hollywood as seen through the eyes of two innocent, impoverished Italian stone cutters working on the set of D.W. Griffith's monumental 1916 epic 'Intolerance'. It's the perfect setting for a meditation on the end of Hollywood's precocious adolescence (Griffith's film was the first and most ambitious megabuck box-office flop), but rarely has a film launched with such promise landed with such a thud. In their first English language feature the Taviani brothers evoke none of the heady freedom that followed movie-making out West. Their Hollywood is a pitiful facsimile, patched together from a few myths and daydreams into an artificial costume drama, with cardboard characters mouthing dialogue that (one hopes) suffered in translation. The brief glimpse of footage from 'Intolerance' itself only underlines how little the Tavianis aspired to and how limited their resources were.

The film is historical and quite moving, encapsulating the experience of Italian Immigrants adjusting to a new life in the New World. The two brothers, and other characters, are well-developed. The film has excellent timing, breathtaking cinematography and a gripping storyline.

1st watched 1/19/1997 - (Dir-Paolo Tavioni & Vittorio Tavioni): Good story and interesting characters. About two inseparable brothers and their encounters when coming to America in the early 1900's and their way into a D.W. Griffith movie.

A drama by Taviani brothers. Although the depressing poverty and brutality against animals, core elements in their harsh "Padre Padrone", were also present in "Good morning, Babylon", the latter is, most of the time, a light-hearted film, until the sad resume. Their adventures in Hollywood amuse. Something intereeting tonbe renarked is that Charles Dance was able to make us be sympathetic to Grifitth (off course that fact that he was directing "Intolerance" and not "The birth of a nation" helps).