Mimi, o Metalúrgico

"The Seduction of Mimi" is an uninspired English translation of "Mimi metallurgico ferito nell'onore", the original title of the film whose approximate equivalent would be "Mimi the metallurgist wounded in his honor". The author is Lina Wertmüller, an Italian director whose films are always original and not just by their names. This 1972 film captures some of the main features of Italian society at the time - violence, organized crime, capitalist exploitation, the North-South economic gap, corruption, hypocrisy - in a way that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. It does it in a style that mixes the radical social comments of the directors of the previous generation like Pasolini with the best tradition of Italian comedies of morals and characters. Add to that the extraordinary charisma of Giancarlo Giannini (this role that had been refused by several actors among which Marcelo Mastroiani was their first collaboration) and the audacity of the screenwriter director that I can only imagine facing the chevaliers of political correctness in the film studios of today. The result is a foamy film, which does not show too many signs of erosion, although its age is close to half a century.

Carmelo Mandocheo called Mimi could be one of those heroes in Chaplin's movies that seems to never be abandoned by bad luck. The beginning of the film finds him a worker in a stone quarry in Sicily, married to a wife who is shy to the point of frigidity, and who gets in trouble after being discovered that he voted in the elections with the communists and not with the Mafia candidates. He has no choice but to join the wave of internal migrants from southern to northern Italy in those years. Arriving in Turin, he quickly finds that everyone who spins the wheels of the system seems to be part of the same mafia clan - from the industrialists who employ him to the trade unionists. The meeting with the beautiful Trotskyist (a word he can't pronounce) Fiorella triggers a love story that can't end too well, especially after the heads of the ubiquitous Mafia send him back to Sicily. We are in the midst of a full and frothy Italian family comedy, with the double meaning of the word 'family' in a Sicilian context.

Giancarlo Giannini makes a great role here. In a matter of seconds, he can switch from funny comedy to social drama, from passionate lover to self-persiflage. Mariangela Melato, an extremely talented and expressive actress, whom I don't remember seeing in other movies from that period, is his partner. The whole team of actors is very well chosen. The screenplay and directorial approach of Lina Wertmüller combines Italian farce and morality comedy with social media film, adding a dose of boldness and frankness that is present in the Italian cinema of the time but not necessarily in political movies. Where her peers spoke out angrily, Lina Wertmüller used the acid of satire. Her place among the significant Italian directors of the period is well deserved, and 'The Seduction of Mimi' is one of her films that does not disappoint its viewers today.

As always, Giannini and Melato are the shining stellas in yet another of the Wertmueller's movies. The two of them alone make this film worth seeing (though this time it's more Giannini since Melato's role is not as demanding as in some later films). However, compared to some other realizations by the same director-two-actors trio, this film does not strike as equally capturing and consistent in its message. Heavily leaning against social issues (remember "Swept Away"?), but bringing to the front the romance/fidelity/honor plot, it apparently fails to round up either of them. Not even the diversion into the familiar Italian-honor humor towards the end of the film is able to pull out the hanging feeling. Those who love the genre will still not regret spending their time with this movie.

In Sicily, the mine worker Carmelo "Mimí" Mardocheo (Giancarlo Giannini) votes in the Communist Party candidate instead of in the Mafia's one believing that the suffrage is secret. After the elections, he loses his job and cannot find any other job in his village that is controlled by the mobster Don Calogero (Turi Ferro). He leaves his wife Rosalia (Agostina Belli) with his family and travels to Turin expecting to find a job.

He finds an illegal position in the civil construction that is also explored by the Mafia and when a coworker dies in an accident, he finds that the mobsters have dumped his body on the road. However, he does not report the crime to the police and lies to the mobster Salvatore Tricarico (Turi Ferro) telling that he belongs to the family of a powerful mobster. Mimi gets a metallurgic position and joins the Communist Party. Then he fall in love with the virgin Trotskyite street vendor Fiorella Meneghini (Mariangela Melato) and they have a boy.

When Mimi witness the mobster Vico Tricarico (Turi Ferro) executing several men in a hotel, he survives but he does not report to the police. Mimi is transferred to Catania in a supervisory position against his will. He brings Fiore and their son to Sicily, but he is still married with Rosalia but he claims that he is ill and does not have sex with her. When Mimi learns that Rosalia is pregnant, he finds that he is a cuckold and plots a scheme to seduce and knock up Amalia Finocchiaro (Elena Fiore), who is the wife of Rosalia's lover. But his revenge does not work as planned.

"Mimì metallurgico ferito nell'onore" is a bitter satire by Lina Wertmüller about a naive and ignorant Sicilian worker that entwines his honor with class warfare, politics and mafia in his miserable life with tragicomic consequences. I saw this movie in the 70's or 80's and today I have just watched the Brazilian DVD that is unfortunately edited to 108 minutes running time.

I am a fan of the Italian director Lina Wertmüller and I like this unfunny satire about honor, moral and culture that is dated in the present days but it is impossible to laugh with the ignorance of Mimi and most of his countrymen. This weird movie may be lost between comedy and drama but for me it is an original and cult view of Italy in the early 70's. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Mimi, O Metalúrgico" ("Mimi, The Metallurgic")

Mimi is not a woman; it is the nickname of the main character. If there is a funnier actor than Giancarlo Giannini in the last 50 years, I have not seen one. He is ten times funnier and more believable than Roberto Benigni of Life is Beautiful, the highly overrated film that won Benigni best actor and Best Foreign Film in 1998. There are a half dozen Giannini films that are better, and this is one of them. Mariangela Melato is supurb is this film and every film she was ever in with Gianinni. The plot is silly; but it doesnt matter; its the MOVIE that counts and makes you laugh your ass off. Anyone who does not laugh at the fat lady sequence is definitely disturbed. Enjoy this and all the Wertmueller satires.

Lina Wertmuller packs a lot of exaggeration into her characters and stories. Her actors deliver it, too. This film would deserve watching just to admire Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato, they are infectiously good. What I find detracts a bit from the film, and keeps it from being as good as Wertmuller's best films, is the mixture of social and personal commentary; it is all jumbled together in a very 1970s anarchic way. Wertmuller mocks all the institutions of authority through the clever use of the same actors in multiple roles, and she mocks Mimì (Giancarlo Giannini) for his self-serving and ever-changing attitudes towards women and marriage. Each of these stand beautifully alone and each could have made an entire film. But I don't get the point of her mixing the two.