Italianamerican

Martin's grandfather arrived in America in 1901. My grandfather arrived in 1888, during the Great Blizzard. Martin's father recalls how Italians were treated by the Irish. During the Columbus Day parades, the Irish would make fun of the Italians, ending in a huge fist fight.

Like his father's family, my parents grew up in poverty. There were large families living in small living places. My ancestors came to America to work for a $1 a day. As a hod carrier, my grandfather carried bricks and mortar up and down ladders all day, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Even when he was dying from prostate cancer, he had to work, pissing blood, to support the family.

Life was not a bowl of cherries, yet my parents believed in the American Dream and worked hard, saving their pennies, to provide their children with a decent life.

If you are an Italian American baby boomer, you will relate to this film.

Italianamerican (1974)

*** (out of 4)

Martin Scorsese short has him and a film crew talking with his parents about their history in America. The premise of this thing doesn't sound too interesting but Scorsese's parents are great storytellers and that keeps this 50-minute film moving quite well. Scorsese's father is very funny in his storytelling and his beliefs and without question he's the highlight.

Turner Classic Movies shows this every once in a while but you can also find it on a R2 disc but I'm not sure if that's official or not.

I recently read a pretty vicious attack on Scorsese in an excellent evangelical periodical, Books and Culture. It claimed Scorsese is, in a word, bloodthirsty, and still a street punk at heart.Granted, Scorsese has done his share of bloody films, but the violence which obsesses him isn't PHYSICAL, its emotional. In addition, Scorsese isnt simply obsessed with blood..hes obsessed with honor, tradition,and family. A clue to the shallowness of this critique of Scorsese could be found in the fact that the author actually thought Age of Innocence was just a studio assignment,which Scorsese agreed to do reluctantly. In fact, Scorsese obsessed over Wharton's novel for a decade after his pal, Jay Cocks, gave it to him. Everyone of Scorseses critics should watch this heart-felt, tender, and utterly bloodless film. I really hope he finally gets around to doing his long-planned feature film about his parents courtship,and his own boyhood in little Italy. P.S.the film also inspired me to buy The Scorsese Family cookbook!

I got to see a clip of this documentary when Martin Scorsese came to Providence, Rhode Island to accept an award on behalf of Brown University. We got to see a small clip from every directed film that Scorsese had made in his 40 plus year career. Out of all the films, Italianamerican got the biggest laughs and the longest applause. Having been the only Italian and the only person who did not attend Brown University that got into Brown's auditorium (the security was terrible) to see Scorsese, I enjoyed the realism that Scorsese captured by watching his parents be themselves in front of the camera. All the other Irish people who attended the event enjoyed the film as well, but not as much as me.

The beginning of Martin Scorsese's career had much to do with his urge to portray the Italian-American Roman Catholic experience. Who's That Knocking at My Door and Mean Streets, for instance, are not just films about low-level hoods getting into trouble but on a more profound level dealing with the virtually reflexive affectations born out of their culture, heritage and masculinity complexes. One can see these movies over and over again and discover an undertone never before realized, because is not just Scorsese's interest in the subject but his lifelong saturation in it that gave them such endless dimensions and jittery spirit. Italianamerican, shot after returning from Hollywood to rediscover his ethnic roots, whether or not this home movie of sorts has the same vibrancy or histrionics as the director's features, is the last necessary word on the subject. Any vagueness in imagining the look and feel of the Italian-American middle-class Roman Catholic existence will be enriched by this 50-minute homemade doc.

The Scorseses talk about their experiences as Italian immigrants in New York among other things, while having dinner at their flat on Elizabeth Street. It is purely incidental that Scorsese's father Charles is quiet much of the time, guarded, slowly growing comfortable with the camera, while mother Catherine is with no trouble at all completely her zestful self. Just as if the director had taken us along while visiting his parents, they discuss, with little apparent preparation, the family's origins, their ancestors, life in post-war Italy and the burdens of poor Sicilian immigrants in America struggling to acquire livelihood and earn enough to support their families. She also instructs how to cook her meatballs. If you misunderstand her instruction at all, don't worry; the recipe's in the credits.

Italianamerican is very, well, easy, but it's one of the most endearing things a director has ever done. He shares his parents with us, his old home, the stories that brought him here. The quirks of his parents remind us of those of our own parents. It is pleasant just simply to watch two people who are never afraid to pick a fight with each other, have their many clashing opinions and have learned to let it all slide, to live with each other in peace. Their hostility is not hostility to them; it's just how they talk to each other.