Mambo

Monday June 19th 2006 I was watching the Independent Film Channel today and came across a movie by Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti called "Caro Diario" In the film Moretti reflects on his life in three tales: "On My Vespa", "Islands" and "Doctors". In the first, (On My Vespa) he narrates while riding along and says "I always wanted to be a dancer" He reflects on the importance of dance in not only film and stage, but in life in general. Later on, while waiting for a beverage in an Italian juice store, he notices a television playing and the movie "Mambo" was playing. He knows the song and begins to sing and dance along with the (unfourtanatly) little known Sylvana Mangano as she does a unique version of the Mambo. Afterwards, at the outside café table his friend asks him what he was doing in the shop and he relates that he was watching a "Strange scene, starring Sylvana Mangano and that it had effected him in a strange way. I went to IMDb and looked up Sylvana's name, only to find an amazing actress who was a big star in Italian film for a short time. She was married to Dino DeLaurentis and would have followed in the steps of Gina Lolobrigada and Sophia Loren had not she been married to DeLaurentis. Her most famous movie was "Riso Amaro" where she toiled ever so sexually in rice fields. She separated from DeLaurentis and lived out her life in Paris and Spain sewing tapestries. The scene was mesmerizing to me as well as Moretti and she was a beautiful and talented woman. Such is show BIz I guess!?! You can read the complete story of this unsung actress by entering "Mambo" in the search box on IMDb and clicking on the links. By the way, she never divorced Dino DeLaurentis and died in 1989.The movie "Mambo" originally had a completely different storyline, but was banned due to it's homosexual theme. Caro Diario is playing all this month on IFC channel.

The sound and the editing are rough to the point of being distracting, and the film starts slowly. Those are really the only minuses though. The writing is good, the directing is good for the most part. The actors are well directed at least, and the pacing is good.

There are three real draws to this film: Silvana Mangano's solid performance, a great supporting contribution by Shelley Winters, and a rather intense melodramatic screenplay. Rossen is not credited as a writer, but I find it hard to believe that he didn't have a significant hand in it. Many of the scenes are written in a style quite close to his.

Briefly the story runs as follows, a poor venetian in love with a dead end guy is taken under the wing of a Mambo dance producer (Shelley Winters). She briefly finds fame and then a problematic and complicated marriage with a count (the why of it you will have to find out for yourself). Her marriage is troubled by her relationship with her former lover Mario.

This film has been on my to-watch list ever since seeing a brief snippet of it in Nanni Moretti's "Caro Diario". For the most part I think it was referenced as a dancing film, but if you watch this you'll see there are some subtler ties to (which I can't mention without spoiling the film).

Silvana's closing lines: "Perhaps in my third world, the absorbing world of the Mambo, I could find forgetfulness of the past, and in time peace and happiness."

I couldn't help to think about it,right when I saw the fist scenes and noticed that the main actors are the same than in their most famous film.After seeing that Vittorio Gassman is also there,that he also plays a quite cruel Husband/Lover,who is also nobody to pity as he smuggles his wife as his cigarettes,that instead of the Rice paddies they change them for Venice,that she plays a sexy girl,this time obsessed by the music....It looks like the typical Hollywood remake,no ideas,the original Cast and lets hope to make some money... Anyone else thinking like me...?

And well,I just hate to watch it in English,I just love the different accents of Italian actors.

Mambo has grown on me. It's a better film than I first thought, with a few elements of greatness, some standard fare, and one big flaw. The latter is the film and sound quality; if ever a film needed professional restoration, this is it. The sumptuous costumes, beautiful Roman and Venetian scenes, elaborate dancing and singing, and sharp dialogue are all casualties from an old and tired print. The standard fare is the tragedy and melodrama of the story that's been filmed hundreds of times all over the world: poor girl and controlling boyfriend strive to better themselves, mix with the wealthy, and result is mostly angst and unhappiness, with a few glimmers of hope. The elements of greatness include outstanding dance scenes, which ooze the post-war artistic ethos, from Katherine Dunham and her dance troupe, as well as great acting from Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman, with kudos also to Shelley Winters and Michael Rennie. What has grown on me is the portrayal of the raw, powerful, animalesque drives of each of the main characters, including Mangano's father and Rennie's mother, played in quasi-cameo roles to perfection by Eduardo Ciannelli and Mary Clare. The characters of Gassman, Ciannelli and Clare never change, they are stuck in their ways, and we disapprove. Rennie does change, and we approve. Mangano keeps some balance throughout the film. She is deeply conflicted, yet never totally embraces either of the extremes to which she is pulled, despite experimenting with both . What emerges is a morality tale of how social mobility can work, though hard work and art, and ethical (if unbelievable) choices.

I saw this film in 1954 in Philadelphia. Was most elated to see the Katherine Dunham Company, the most famous dance company in the world at that time. Am curious as to why the U.S.A. (English) version is only 97 minutes and the Italian version is 110 minutes. What was cut from the film? I suspect it was Katherine Dunham's company performing with a mixed race company, still taboo at that time. Also not listed in the cast is Raimonda Orselli, a ballerina from the Rome Opera Ballet who joined the Katherine Dunham Company for this film. Regarding the title, it was definitely not about Mambo, which was the big dance craze in the U.S.A. at that time. Was probably titled "Mambo" to sell it. It was definitely a melodrama. Different, particularly in the casting, worthy of a study in the annals of film-making.