Respiro

The movie gives us a vivid and ruthless description of the odyssey of a rebel housewife, described with passionate and emotional involvement without giving vent to any sort of conceptualism. This touching story has been inspired by the legend of a mysterious woman who disappeared a long time ago in Lampedusa (an island in the sea of Sicily, the southern point of Europe.). Grazia, the catalyst character of the story, a restless married woman of unusual habits, is considered a nut, an irresponsible person who can't participate fully in the life of society, being forced into total imagination. If it hadn't been for an out-of-date husband, maybe she would have turned her beauty to better account.

Unable to stifle her feelings and to bear the heavy burden of age-old customs, she blows a fuse, ready to abandon home, land and property to flee into the unknown. As the intolerant member of an archaic fishermen community whose behavior leaves much to be desired, not tuned to her same emotional wavelength, not contaminated by the standardization of the modern society, she's quite resolved to preserve every traditional values and social structures, without leaving space for human relationships not predetermined by time-honored customs faithfully handed on from father to son. In this forgotten land where the younger brothers strive to safeguard the reputation of their mothers, the alienated Grazia, (played by a touching and wonderful Valeria Golino), generally considered to be either a very wretched woman or, even worse, a lunatic one, is eager to undertake a journey towards the complete fulfillment of her hopes, yearning for the sight of her deep blue sea, complying with her inner desire for emancipation. In her unremitting efforts to achieve ultimate freedom, the same freedom bestowed by her upon the dogs waiting to be slaughtered, she strives to get over her existential dimension of illness, feeling like a fish out of water, with fear in her eyes, eager to feel the warm embrace of the sea, restored to a sort of primitive amniotic fluid and changing her uneasy feelings into unlimited pleasure.

The movie shows us the epos of a picturesque island where even the children's games reflect the savage nature of the surrounding environment. To be considered at the same time the celebration of a land and of rough people stubbornly bound together by a close friendship without any will to open up new horizons, conforming to precise religious rules (Our Lady's statue brought down the sounding-depth), careful not to mistake the will of sound emancipation for the abolition of every moral scruples. Decided not to be corrupted by vices of more developed social strata.

This is the first film by Emanuele Crialese that has played locally, I think, or if any other has come in, it hasn't played commercially.

The film is beautifully done with the fantastic backdrop of the Italian island of Lampedusa. This is a very arid place with almost no vegetation at all. The heat, obviously, must be oppressive, as the sun punishes this land and its people constantly to the point that children act as savages, as proven by the opening scenes.

Among these rascals are Pasquale and Filippo, the sons of Grazia, the housewife at the center of the story. She lives in her own world. She is a rebel and a free soul. Grazia's actions are seen as madness by her husband Pietro and his mother, who lives next door. It is the classic family from forgotten towns such as this, where everyone knows everyone's business. The only solution for Grazia's problems is to send her away to a Milan institution that perhaps will turn her into a vegetable. Her only sin is to be different, therefore, she is the town's eccentric. All her neighbors think she's a lunatic.

By Grazia withdrawing from the world, she appears to be a maladjusted person, which she isn't. She just loves to be free; swimming is her passion and her life, running around the island in her scooter is another form of freedom from the realities of home. In trying to escape her lot in life, Grazia discovers how much her son Pasquale loves her. The final scenes after the disappearance with the search party on the beach are typical of the same society that condemned Grazia but never took steps to show her any kindness. The miracle that occurs at the end is that perhaps Pietro realizes that in spite of his wife's apparent madness he has found how much he really needs her.

This is a simple story told with a sure hand by the director, who also wrote the screen play.

Valeria Golino, who has spent a few years in minor roles in Hollywood, is very effective as Grazia. She shows a great range of emotions under the sure direction of Crialese. It is amazing no one has made anything worth of Ms. Golino's talent, or that she has been forgotten by the Italian cinema; or that no one has come to her with projects such as this film.

As her husband, Vincenzo Amato is very effective. Also, Francesco Casisa as Pasquale makes a splendid appearance. This young man with the proper guidance has the potential of making a big splash in the Italian cinema.

In Emanuele Crialese's lyrical drama Respiro, the sky is gorgeous. The sea is gorgeous. The harsh landscape is gorgeous. The children, even when they are behaving like little monsters, are gorgeous. The lead actress is gorgeous. There is so much obvious and intentional gorgeousness about this picture that we have to dig far down, past the scene painting, to find the story.

Although subtitled Grazia's island (Grazia is the lead role, magnificently realised by Valeria Golino), Respiro could have well been called "Scenes from rural Sicilian life", as the scenography, cinematography and tableaux-like imagery seem as important to the director as her thin narrative line. Respiro's locale is Lampedusa, a tiny island far off the west coast of Sicily. About the same latitude as Malta, this place is about as remote as it gets - Tunis is closer than Palermo. It can be safe to say that Italian time here has pretty much stood still for decades; this is Italy of de Sica and Mascagni, not Fellini and Prada. The men go out to sea, the children play, women pack fish, old black-clad crones meddle and the languid summer air of total boredom hangs down from the cloudless sky.

The story is fairly typical, the type that a few great (and many, many average) Italian filmmakers have been serving up for the last three generations - life in the sun drenched rural, ritualistic and tribal south and the saga of one village denizen who dares to break the moulds. How long since Cinema Paradiso?

Grazia (incidentally, the name means "grace" - get it?) is a loving, rebellious humanist - she loves her children, she loves music, she loves swimming in her panties, she loves the Vespa-propelled wind in her hair and loathes the suffering of any living creature. She does not love to cook, or put on rubber wellies and plastic smock to pack sardines. This high-spirited recklessness is just a bit too much for this dusty place and she is duly deemed mad. Golino, who acts in four languages and has had decent parts in Leaving Las Vegas, Immortal Beloved and Frida, is a joy to watch. There is not a moment forced or unnatural about her performance and this is saying a fair bit, considering her several mad scenes. She conveys brilliantly the purgatory of a loving woman who wants more, but knows neither what it is nor how to get it.

After two incidents (one just a bit lusty, the other bordering on a bit off) it is decided by the meddling crones and village busybodies to send Grazia off to a sanatorium in Milan, which might as well be Mars. She will have no part of this and her 13-year-old son hides her in a secluded cave. Her ensuing escape, seclusion and discovery offer us some more gorgeous imagery and displays the motherly bonding quite well. Yes, the imagery does go a bit down the obvious, biblical, redemptive female roads, but it well handled. Water, which has played quite a large role in the director's concept, stars in a few more scenes. It also features in the film's ending, which is spiritual, gorgeous and inconclusive in the same breadth. Love and human devotion may win, but this gal is not going to be packing sardines for much longer!

The movie, considering the almost rudimentary story line, is incredibly rich. The smallest characters are well defined and there is wonderful juxtaposition between formal Italian and the coarse regional dialect. Much of the cast is so natural you could believe them to be locals. The essence of life in such a village is well captured and the relationships within a family are well explored as well. And there is enough of the magical landscape of the place to make you want to board the next Alitalia jet. For a visit, that is.

If you are religious, if you believe in miracles, if you believe that religion has nothing to do with miracles, if you HATE religion, if you are Catholic, if you are Roman Catholic, if you grew up in such a home, if you despise the hypocrisy of it all, you should see this movie. If you are Italian, if you speak Italian, if you are planning to travel to Italy, if you like Italian food, if you are learning Italian, if you even know anyone who is Italian you need to see this movie. If you've been affected by a psychological disorder, if you have a psychological disorder, if you are a psychologist, if you have a psychologist. If you have a mother. If you've seen Big Top Pee-Wee and thought "Gina" was hot. See Respiro.

I saw this movie in a small theatre and could tell who the aforementioned italomaniacs were in the crowd by the eruptions of laughter that would occur before the (occasionally poorly translated) subtitles appeared. The friend I went to see this with was wont to turn to me at choice moments during the film and inquire as to "WHAT IS IT WITH YOU PEOPLE?!" Charming, warm. Absolutely beautiful location. Vibrant characters. Simplistic filming. Multi-faceted story, bringing together a family and a community and managing to tell several stories at once, I can't find anything bad to say about this movie.

Emanuele Crialese's `Respiro' reminds me of Woody Allen's film, `Hollywood Ending', where a movie director makes a movie so bad, only the French would love it. While Allen's film is fictional, the French still gave "Respiro" the Critic's Week Prize at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. I bet Woody had a chuckle over this one.

The basis for the movie, `Respiro', comes from a legend told on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, where a young mother who behaved outside the rules of the small community, was thought to be insane, and thus ostracized by the townspeople. One day, she disappeared, leaving only her clothes on the beach. The community was left feeling guilty for having driven the woman to suicide, but the force of prayers brought her back to life from the sea, where she returned to normal life with her family.

The main problems with `Respiro' the film, are two-fold: first, the mother, played by Valeria Golino (whose film debut was along side Tom Cruise in `Rain Man'), seemed incongruent to the intent of the legend, which intended to portray the woman as simply out of line with social norms. In the film, however, she is actually psychiatrically ill. This critical point changes our perception of the townspeople's attempt to help her – rather than they're seeming conformist and unjust in their attempts to help her, they actually seemed genuine and authentic. This very fact discredits almost the entire point of the film. The only left to keep it together are the character portrayals themselves. But here, the director fails again, but much like the way Allen satirized in his film, `Hollywood Ending': it's a case of the Emperor's New Clothes: none of the main characters have any depth or meaning (aside from one of the mother's young sons), but the director tells you they do, so those who awarded this film the Critic's Week Prize, seemed to see something that just wasn't there.

Other problems with the film make it even less interesting, and by consequence, even more pretentious: The director intended to keep dialog extremely brief, but failed to replace their communication with anything else to portray character, mood, or even a sense of purpose. It seemed to be a series of scenes that were intended to be interpreted as `artful' in their abstraction and symbolism, but the director just assumed the audience would accept it because he told us to.

The closest thing to compare this movie with would be `Il Postino', the Italian film about the romantic postman who writes love poems to a woman to win her love. That film had all of the features that `Respiro' attempted, but Postino had warm and interesting characters, a meaningful and motivated plotline, and didn't mind portraying a cute Italian island for the beautifully romantic place that it is.

In the end, `Respiro' didn't move me at all, but if it's going to win film awards at Cannes, I'll give the credit more to Woody Allen, who seems to have an insight into those who think they know what a good artsy film is all about.