Le disque rouge

What a wonderful film, not really a neo-realist, as I'm not too keen on them, this is more a melodrama but not sentimental and very realistic. I knew that a train driver was going to have a terrible accident and affect his family but this is so much more than this. The director, Pietro Germi also plays the part of the driver and although his family has it's problems he really loves his youngest son. The kid is played by Edoardo Nevola, only eight at the time but helped by Germi manages to have him revolve around this. There are so many amazing scenes with him, like the one with his older sister, and he is on his own and trying to work it out her being pregnant with her boyfriend, in the 50s and in Italy. So many brilliant scenes with the trains and great shots of the streets and people running around. There are also splendid shots of some bars and so many men inside and great bits singing with Germi at the centre with his guitar. Often his son will be there as he has been sent to bring him home but sometimes he stays on and enthusiastically sings as well. Later on we will see his guitar being dropped, at the very end.

I am pretty sure you could interpret "Il Ferroviere" ("Man of Iron" or "The Railroad Man") multiple ways. On the basic level, it's about a seemingly average working-class family who, through the course of the film, disintegrates. On the other hand, I am sure that many seeing the film might see it as an indictment of the hypocrisy of the Italian family. Whether the writer and director intended this to be the case is anyone's guess, though I am sure it could easily be seen both ways. Of course, the film ALSO could be a story about hope.

As I mentioned above, the Marcocci family seems pretty ordinary. The father is an engineer for the railroad and two of his children are grown and one is still a small boy. Through the course of the film, you learn more and more about the family and ultimately the people within it slowly lose control and the family unit is at stake. First, you see that the father drinks a bit too much. Then, you learn that he's a bit of a bully--with the old fashioned idea that the father, Andrea, is the dictator (albeit sometimes benevolent) in the household. This is actually a pretty 'normal' style of parenting in the day. Not healthy but probably not that unusual. He occasionally slaps around his wife and his kids because to Andrea that is how a father keeps order. But the family has had enough of the control and violence and rebellion begins creeping into the seemingly happy household. Will the family survive and rebuild? Or, will the worst happen? I could easily talk more about this, but really think you should just see the film.

The film is very interesting because it does something very unusual. At times, the film shows from the viewpoint of the director (who also played Andrea, by the way)--sort of a neutral observer. But the, in an odd twist, the young child narrates at times--and I really liked this because although he only looked about 7 year-old, he was VERY astute and really seemed to have a great understanding of what was happening around him much of the time. So, while Pietro Germi directed and starred in the film, the one who later ending up upstaging him was the boy, Sandrino (Edoardo Nevola) and this made the film very unusual.

Now as for the style of this film, I've seen it described as an Italian Neo-Realist picture. While some might agree, I am not so certain. It's almost like a Neo-Neo-Realist film. Let me explain. In the 1940s, Italian directors like Rosselini and De Sica made some wonderful films about working class people. But just because a film is about these people doesn't make it a Neo-Realist film. They also had to be acted exclusively or almost exclusively by non-actors. Perhaps the lead could be an established actor (such as Ingrid Bergman in "Stromboli"), but the rest of the cast or nearly all of them should be non-professionals in natural settings. However, most of the characters in "Il Ferroviere" had been in other films and were quite experienced. This is NOT a complaint--this IS a good film. But it isn't exactly like the earlier films--mostly because with the mid-1950s, Italians (who had been in financial ruin since WWII) could now afford paid actors and even nice sets if needed! So, in essence, the Neo-Realists stopped making these films because they could afford to make prettier and more polished films--and the public probably demanded this as well. I am sure this was liberating for the filmmakers, but some of these earlier and 'rougher' films were masterpieces (such as "The Children Are Watching Us" and "Umberto D.") and I really wished they'd continued making them.

So what did I think of this not-quite-Neo-Realist film? Well, I loved it and can live with the fact it isn't 'pure' Neo-Realism because it is a very well made film. However, I need to tell you up front that it started very, very slowly and I could see someone losing interest. Stick with this one for many reasons. The acting is great, the direction amazing AND the ending is terrific--thanks, inexplicably, to little Sandrino!! I also loved that although some folks seemed bad in this film, you COULD understand them and they weren't all bad--like most real people. Well worth your time. And, so good I even considered giving it a 10...though didn't because I almost never give movies a score that high.

By the way, in no way is this meant as a criticism, but as an American I can't help but notice that in so many old Italian films people seemed so incredibly emotional and loud. This is NOT criticism, but I was wondering if this is a true portrait of the people or perhaps a bit of a cliché. I honestly don't know and would love your input. I just know that few American families are quite THIS intensely emotional--which may or may not be a good thing.

I was puzzled when I discovered "In nome della legge", kind of Sicilian western with a young new judge facing local hostilities. It was the first movie directed by Pietro Germi I saw. I just found this "Ferroviere" and seeing it was another slap in my face, with sequences rarely seen in any movie of that period. Even more important, I discovered a very impressive Pietro Germi playing a railroad driver who prefers singing and boozing in the local pub than going quietly home with his family. Imagine the point of view of his very young son, it's him who describe the story. I tried not to spoil, but there are many details and situations rarely seen or shown at that period, plus Pietro Germi's tough performance, "Ferroviere" is a must seen. Really.

Il Ferroviere is the story of train engineer Andrea Marcocci and his family in good times and bad seen mostly through the eyes of his youngest son. Marcocci is a lover of wine and song but he is also an obstinate proud man, his own worst enemy as he manages to alienate family and co-workers in post war strike prone Italy. The film opens with him in high spirits but he is soon beset by problems which include an unmarried pregnant daughter, a deadbeat older son, a work accident that ruins his career, performing scab labor and a drinking problem.

Il Ferroviere is a rather mawkish melodrama with weak neorealist roots. The child's viewpoint and the father's shame echoes The Bicycle Thief but with less of a sense of desperation. Italy is a decade out of the war and well on the road to recovery. The problem is the bellicose sometimes brutal Andrea who brooks no descent or criticism.

Looking and acting like Kirk Douglas Director Pietro Germi casts himself as Andrea. He is all bombast and not very effective at modulating his moods. He's all rage and melancholy. It is left up to his forever suffering wife to bring out the good in him. Sure he's beat her but he works hard for his family she reasons. In Patriarchal 1956 Italy this is acceptable behavior and to drive that point home we have a scene where Andrea pummels his pregnant daughter while neighbors listen but do not intervene.

I find it ironic that director Germi who brilliantly eviscerated Italy's antiquated marriage laws with the classic comedy-satire Divorce Italian Style (61) condones Andrea's family battering by making him an overall sympathetic character. He is quick to be forgiven but his pride won't allow him to be as fast.

As a timepiece Il Ferroviere provides some disquieting insights with it's sentimental chauvinism but overall it's little more than a heated family drama with an operatic tone that sounds off key most of the time.

I have been studying Italian on Duolingo for a year now and this evening I noticed this little movie - il ferroviere - and I thought to myself: hey, I know this word, it means 'the railroad man'. Needless to say I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into but once I started I couldn't quit.

The story takes place in a small town in Italy after the WWII; the small town part, I figured, is most likely true considering how frequently in the movie everyone's keep bumping into each other and know one another pretty well. Andrea, il padre of the family, is a railroad worker who is as eager to drink wine as he is to make a fuss out of anything but his heart has good intentions that's why it is so easy to empathize with him. Although he's got a wife and three kids he couldn't help feeling lost at times, lonely, frustrated and angry and he pours it out into the family and gets nothing but abandonment and sadness in return.

The narrative flows like a river in the plain, calm and peaceful, and black and white cinematography only adds more colors to the palette of the picture. I just love Italian language for its expressive nature where even a small question like "how are you?" or a toast "to the grapes" sounds like poetry. The whole movie feels more like a play of sorts where every character has their identities, background stories of their own, they're real people so much so that you start to feel the connection with all of them almost immediately.

One year passes in the movie and it seems so in your mind also - you see how much the characters have grown, what they've gone through and what they learned. You may not be a good father, a perfect husband or even a kind person but life teaches everyone all those things with time and in the end you'll be the happiest person alive if you've learned your lessons well.