Volere volare

Well, if you like to laugh and can abandon your expectations -- this film is rather enchanting. An unconventional and creative love-story which accomplishes what it sets out to do -- move beyond expectations. Good pace, good storyline, great humor, but best of all . . . . . . . not Hollywood -- no trite or overused vehicles for the story. Give it a try -- well worth the subtitles.

Fond memories of 'The Icicle Thief' (1989) aren't enough to salvage this 1991 comedy by Maurizio Nichetti, which doesn't add up to anything more than a single, admittedly slim plot twist padded to feature length. Nichetti himself plays an unfortunate movie technician who spends most of the film collecting sound effects for cartoons; he eventually crosses paths with a jaded working woman who services the kinky (but innocent) fantasies of wealthy perverts, and then he turns into a cartoon. The gimmick is never explained, much less developed (it would be interesting to speculate what the final bedroom frolic must have looked like before Nichetti's animated alter ego was penciled into it), and the blend of live action and animation might have been more exciting if Roger Rabbit had never existed. Elsewhere Nichetti plagiarizes a few sight gags from Jacques Tati, and includes a lot of silly audio effects recalling the interminable swallowed whistle scene in Chaplin's 'City Lights'. His affection for classic silent comedy is admirable, but it just isn't possible anymore to recreate the same sort of charm and humor.

What a wild comedy-romance this movie is, with the emphasis on comedy. The two main characters in this Italian film are a woman whose job is to fulfill men's fantasies and a movie sound man (Maurizio Nichetti) who creates wild sound for cartoons. He, himself, at the end, briefly turns into a cartoon character! I told you this was wild and, yes, a bit absurd, but it makes it unique.

The woman, Angela Finochhiaro, isn't all that sexually appealing but she's fun to watch and she appears comfortable doing comedy. In here, she lets men do such things as pour chocolate all over her, pretend she's a holdup victim, scare her by driving too fast, watch her while she's nude, whatever, mostly crazy things.

Despite the latter, it's not a sleazy film although certainly not wholesome family material, either, but it's not sex-obsessed and there is almost no profanity. All the characters are basically nice people. It's different, and worth a look if you can find it.

I loved "Volere Volare." It's a difficult movie to describe, and should not be categorized as simply a "foreign film" or a "comedy," because it is not wholly either. It is the absurdly original love story of a "social worker," unique in her ability to fulfill her clients' strangest sexual fantasies (but no, they are not *that* strange, for the purpose is merely to indulge the viewer by bringing to life his own never-articulated desires) without reducing the film to trite pornography. It can only be called a "Weekend Marathon Movie," because that is exactly the function it serves to a T. The characters in this movie appreciate the simple pleasures of life -- from watching our heroine shower or bathe to decorating her body in assorted frostings and candies -- which brings the movie a light-hearted tone unmatched in most pictures that delight in being dirty. The key to "Volere Volare" is its innocence, most easily seen in the eccentric sound effects expert who falls for the mysterious woman he keeps running into on the street. This movie is perfect for long film-fests put on by tired teenagers in the basements of suburbia. When I want to watch a movie with friends, the last thing on my mind is "Scream 2" or "South Park." I want something that can repeatedly surprise me; something that never considers the formula Hollywood can't shake from its unoriginal head. I want to laugh until my sides hurt, and look around the room to see I'm not alone in my amused sentiment. I want complete originality from someone unconcerned with expensive special effects and blockbuster box office grosses. I want something fresh.

"Volere Volare" might be too large a leap for many, and I know that. But it is the PERFECT movie for anyone trying to pick six or seven movies for a marathon session in front of the VCR. This is a party movie, akin to "Run Virgin Run" (which is not yet on the database) and, to a lesser extent, "Being John Malkovich" (I'm a bit hesitant to include Charlie Kaufman's brainchild, far and away the best film ever made, in such a specific category, as it is the epitomy of everything a movie should be and not just a "good party film"). I guarantee that if you rent "Volere Volare," you will be beaming by the time the credits roll.

The fact that Maurizio Nichetti longed to become a real cartoon was almost predictable: it was just the displaying of his intimate nature, with his resemblance to weird and funny stached little men of old movies, just like Grucho Marx (who ended up as a comic caracther in Dylan Dog's series), with impressive mimic abilities and a never ending sense of innocence and stupidity, in which the latter must not be seen negatively, but as the attitude of never gaining synchronism with the world. That's maybe the reason why he finally conquers a bi-dimensional life, just because a cartoon is a being of pure light. It is a sort of transfiguration, the achievement of a nearly godly state, that makes the meaning of this film much more complicated than one may think.