Le disque rouge

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.

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.

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.

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 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.