La pivellina

I've heard from someone that this movie was a hidden gem. At the screening, the theatre was maybe about half full, probably not even. But there's definitely something about the movie that I simply cannot let go. The feeling lingers. The movie is actually not about the two-year old baby, but it's about the people who live in the trailers. There's no acute dramatic elements in this film but it leaves you with a subtle melancholy. The audience is exposed again and again to their substandard yet noble way of life and the presence of the two-year old baby merely accentuates it. The characters seem at ease with their trailer lives but what makes them really noble is that they do not want that kind of lives for the children. Their compassion is evident throughout the movie and that's what makes the movie so touching. The ending leaves you a little bewildered at first. But it does make sense because the movie is about the people who live in the trailer park and not really about the baby. The movie definitely goes slow but it's worth a watch.

Contrary to what the synopsis says, when the abandoned child is found (and that happens in the first 5 minutes of the movie), no effort at all is made by the circus woman (or by anyone else) to find the child's mother. That's of course a wasted opportunity, because it would have made an interesting starting point. Instead, she and the others simply keep the child more or less as any parent would do, with the movie going nowhere for more than one hour and a half. The cute little child is funny at times (as are most children that aren't spoiled), but the film is utterly lacking in story, acting, directing and photography. There are a million ways to use 100 minutes of your free time, so I'd suggest you avoid this at all costs.

A little girl is found in a park by a woman from a small circus in Italy. She and her family and friends try to take care of the child as best they can waiting for her mother to come for her. What I like most about this movie is how this group of people find a way to give her not only food and clothing but the love she needs. The end wasn't a surprise but leaves the audience guessing about what happened next. I very much enjoy foreign movies and am adding this one to my list.

I really enjoyed this film, which I watched on Netflix, despite the crude cinematography (there are about ten long sequences of people's backs as they walk through parks, housing developments, streets, woods). Small children aren't allowed to act for more than five minutes at a time in the U.S. (child labor laws, though I'm probably exaggerating) and watching this baby acquire language among poor but delightful people was simply charming. But beware that the film is its own pleasure in the Zen sense, and I feel that that was a bad decision. A dark fear hangs over it and the viewer is owed an ending. We go through a lot with these people and find out more about the 14-year-old son and how he reacted to the divorce at the end -- but the film wasn't about him. Why don't we learn who the toddler's mother was and why she left? Come on. Show that you can finish a story.

A woman is out looking for her dog in a city park. She comes across a little girl in a pink snowsuit sitting in a swing all by herself. The story unfolds from there. If you like small, slow films that serve up a rich slice of life in an area you would otherwise never see, La Pivellina is well worth seeing. The characters who work in small circuses around Italy and their relationships with each other are interesting and believable. We grow to care more about them as the story and our time together unfolds. With no big bells or whistles, this film captured my full attention and left me still curious and wanting more.

I saw it at the Palm Springs Film Festival as a late choice among very few films with tickets still available. I'm glad I did.