Così ridevano

This is to me the finest foreign language film to appear on American shores in many a moon. Gianni Amelio as well as the two splendid actors, Enrico Lo Verso and Francesco Giuffrida are to be congratulated for giving us this amazingly moving film about the human and fallible relationship between two brothers...a relationship laced with unabashed love (yet never sentimentally portrayed) that brings a feeling that these are two sides of one person...The older brother is intelligent, but illiterate and therefore enamored of education (a scene in which he hugs his brother's books through the streets of Turin without a word of dialogue makes a fully felt experience). His sacrifices to further his young brother's studies is brilliantly off-set by the ironic disdain that the 16 year old demonstrates...until he later comes to realize the value of his intellectual capacity.

The non-linear structure...set on six separate days, from 1958 to 1964...is completely in keeping with the curvilinear unfolding of the events and emotional reactions throughout this splendid film.

It's powerful ending achieves the exact right tone. I only wish that awful music that accompanies the closing credits didn't nearly jar my sensibilities out of the rich rewards of the movie.

The Way We Laughed works best as a study of familial obligation. The assumptions that "Blood" result in, the mendacity that can occur only within the structure of brotherly (sisterly/fatherly, etc.) expectation, and the assumption (or non-assumption) of responsibilities that either lie in the character, or despite the character. There's some good stuff about class urban/mainland prejudice included in the film, and some comments about the nature of intelligence. All told via a narrative structure that I find particularly pleasing. By skipping from year to year, we see growth and change, but there's a certain amount of work that we need to do to fill in the intervening spaces. This film makes that work worth it, although near the end I found myself wondering how long it would go on.

"The Way We Laughed" is plaintive, unhappy drama about two Sicilian brothers who migrate to Turin, Italy in the late 50's where the older and somewhat duller brother toils as a laborer so his younger brother can reap the benefits of school. This very Italian film peers deeply into the brotherly relationship as it skips through time and circumstance ultimately revealing the true character of the principals. Slow moving, methodical, and two hours long, this film will likely test the patience of most American audiences, especially those less familiar with the subtleties of Italian culture, who may question whether the payoff is worth the wait though the talent of an able auteur and cast are above reproach. (B)

In 1958, the illiterate and naive hard worker Giovanni (Enrico Lo Verso) comes from Sicily to Turin to visit his younger and spoiled brother Pietro (Francesco Giuffrida), who is studying supported by Giovanni. While Giovanni sacrifices his life and decides to stay in Turin working hard to give condition to his brother to become a teacher, the dishonest Pietro is an arrogant liar, skipping classes and failing in the exams. A couple of years later, when Pietro vanishes, Giovanni goes haywire. In the early 60's, Pietro has just graduated in high-school; he seeks Giovanni out and finds that his brother is married; leader of the local labor union organization; and leaning how to write, but has lost his innocence. Their lives will never be the same after their reunion.

"Così Ridevano" is a human movie about the relationship between brothers, and characters and fraternal sacrifices. The story is developed from 1958 to 1964, showing the economical situation of Italy, more specifically of Turin, and how the Southern immigrants from Sicily were treated and explored by their employers. It is touching to see how Giovanni respects the books and sees the importance of education contrasting in a counterpoint with the feelings of his reckless brother. The screenplay is divided in six chapters ("arrivals", "deceptions", "money", "letters", "blood" and "families") and uses ellipsis, jumping through the years and leaving many situations unresolved as if they were kept in secret. The storyline has many points in common with Luchino Visconti's masterpiece "Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli" (Italy in early 60's, the fight for survival of a family from the countryside in Milano and the relationship among brothers). However, the plot is never corny and the conclusion is totally unexpected and unpredictable. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Assim É Que Se Ria" ("That's the Way We Laughed")

What a strange film! An immersion into a worker's life in Turin, and more particularly contrasting the lives to two brothers, the older, less educated, devoted obsessively to the idea that his younger sibling is going to excel, and the audience seldom clear about what the strange, younger lad is up to.

The Way We Laughed is loaded with exciting Italian locales, flirts briefly with political movements, but the focus is always on what's going to happen to the relationship of these very different men. In no way a cheerer-upper, and not exciting in any conventional way, the performances are superb and the narrative compellingly mysterious if the viewer has the patience for scenes that attempt to accurately capture the process of decision making, to the way relationships often work.