Le disque rouge

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.

This likable and virtually unknown early film by the director of the acclaimed DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE is a domestic drama replete with the essentials of the genre: emotional outbursts, separations, and final tearful reunions. A railroad engineer, husband and father, nearly goes to pieces after accidentally running down a suicide on the tracks and barely avoiding collision with another train. His domestic life is derailed as well. He has an older son who is a bum, an alienated and embittered daughter forced to marry her cad-like seducer. Only his wife and younger son, eloquently played by Edoardo Nevola, are any consolation to him. The film rises above the limitations of soap opera through the beauty of the characterizations and the quality of the performances. Pietro Germi, who directs and stars, is able to give us, through a highly detailed and virtuoso performance, something of the feel of frustration and fear (made worse by excessive drinking) which accompany sensitive fathers with the bulk of their lives already lived. There are some heart-wrenching dramatic moments, as when the small son tries to retrieve his drunken father from the wine tavern and those scenes which show the man's worker friends ostracizing him because he becomes a scab during a railroad strike. The movie bears some obvious resemblances to DeSica's BICYCLE THIEF, the gritty locales, the social commentary mixed in with personal drama, the poignant father-son bond that is the worker's eventual salvation. There are some excesses as well, particularly in the over-acting of Sylva Koscina as the man's daughter. Carlo Rustichelli's lovely musical score is an asset when not being overly cloying.

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.

The railroad engineer Andrea Marcocci (Pietro Germi) has been working with his partner and friend Gigi Liverani (Saro Urzì) for thirty years and feels happy and proud with his work, drinking wine after hours with his friends in a bar owned by the former railroad man Ugo. Andrea is married with Sara (Luisa Della Noce) and his young son Sandro (Edoardo Nevola) is very close to him; however Andrea has issues with his unemployed son Marcello (Renato Speziali) and with his pregnant daughter Giulia (Sylva Koscina), whose boy-friend Renato Borghi (Carlo Giuffrè) was forced to marry her. When a suicidal crosses the tracks of his train in a curve, Andrea feels deeply affected by the accident and almost collides with another train. The railroad company investigates the accident and steps Andrea down from his position. The domestic life of Andrea is also affected by his aggressive behavior and Marcello and Giulia leave home. Later Andrea also leaves home and starts to drink until the day Sandro visits his father in a bar.

"Il Ferroviere" is a human and realistic melodrama with a corny but beautiful conclusion. The drama is watched through the eyes of the clever Sandro that sometimes does not understand what is happening with his dearest family. The stereotype of the Italian people is explored with cries, separations, discussions and a reunion in a Christmas Day, and it is very easy for a Brazilian understand the situations since our people has similar behavior. The acting is top-notch, but the performance of the boy Edoardo Nevola is awesome. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Ferroviário" ("The Railroad Man")

Social melodrama, written, directed and performed by Pietro Germi, acclaimed in Italy, Cannes and San Sebastian.

A simple story that follows the life of a railroad worker in post-war Italy and his family.

Hostages of the joys and sorrows of everyday working life, the loves and dislikes of children, family tensions, health problems, alcoholism and other temptations that help to forget miseries, but also of the love that unites the couple and the children and the solidarity of the popular community.

A film with an undeniable poetic touch, which makes it a classic for many and where the excellent interpretations of Germi and the young Edoardo Nevola stand out, in the role of little Sandro, around which the whole story revolves.