Adorável Pivellina

Italy has long been a country for producing small films about everyday people,and 'La Pivellina' is no exception. A middle aged woman,once a dashing figure in the Circus world is out looking for her dog,when she comes upon an abandoned two year old girl,Asia,sitting on the swing. Patty asks where her mother is,and Asia has no answer. Patty decides to look for both her dog,as well as Asia's (alleged)mother. Patty decides to take little Asia back to the trailer where she & her husband,Walter live. Walter isn't exactly happy to have the toddler in tow (fearing police intervention),but agrees to let Asia stay,at least until Asia's mother turns up. When the mother shows no sign of coming back to get her daughter,the couple take care of little Asia (and end up bonding with her). With the help of a next door neighbour,Tairo,a 14 year old boy,they try to make an existence for the little girl. Will Asia's mother ever show up to reclaim Asia? This is a little film with a big heart that will work it's way to your heart. Documentary film makers, Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimme co direct this little charmer of a film from a screen play written by Tizza Covi (who also acts as producer & editor),with cinematography by Rainer Frimme (who makes very good use of hand held camera work,as well as co producer,too). The cast includes Patrizia Gerardi as Patty,Walter Saabel as Walter,Tairo Caroli as Tairo,and Asia Crippa as Asia. At long last,a film dealing with children that doesn't paint children as smart mouthed,snotty little punks that seem to know more than adults (Tairo actually looks up to Patty & Walter with genuine respect & admiration,and not as a couple of farty old fogies one would expect from your typical garden variety situation comedy). A film that is well worth seeking out for thinking persons who are sick to death of all of those predictable made for TV looking (so called)comedies. Spoken in Italian with English subtitles. Not rated by the MPAA,this film contains some outbursts of rude language,and an unpleasant scene of animal abuse.

Contrary to what the synopsis says, when the abandoned child is found (and that happens in the first 5 minutes of the movie), no effort at all is made by the circus woman (or by anyone else) to find the child's mother. That's of course a wasted opportunity, because it would have made an interesting starting point. Instead, she and the others simply keep the child more or less as any parent would do, with the movie going nowhere for more than one hour and a half. The cute little child is funny at times (as are most children that aren't spoiled), but the film is utterly lacking in story, acting, directing and photography. There are a million ways to use 100 minutes of your free time, so I'd suggest you avoid this at all costs.

The soundtrack reminds one of one's own amateur attempts at 'shooting a home movie' on one's family camera. BIG DEAL. The film is SO GOOD that this 'drawback' becomes a PLUS! We are taken into the heart of our Western wasteland. We are shown what simple sentiments, under duress, under discrimination, under a culture where poetry and playfulness are nearly redundant, can mean. We MEET people we would not usually, have the courage or desire to approach... in THEIR surroundings. But this is not the usual ARTY VOYEURISM that even the best films in the 'social' genre usually put out... This is curiosity, respect and compassion. This film is TENDER. This film is a healing but sad, but beautiful experience. I saw it in Buenos Aires, Argentina where it has been running in a central cinema for...six months! In Italy NO ONE has seen it. This information says it all.

Just saw it at the Copenhagen PIX film festival 2010, and really felt it was a good slice of social realism in the style of Belgian filmmakers Dardenne brothers, but the style applies for other earlier directors as well.

The actors and the dialog in the movie is what really lifts this movie as it could really have ended as a failed movie without believable characters to make the story unfold. The child playing Asia/Aia also acts really well with the other characters.

The story is very simple but it doesn't need to be more complicated than it is. The movie worked well for me as it didn't fall into the usual clichés towards the ending as many other similar movies would have done.

I've heard from someone that this movie was a hidden gem. At the screening, the theatre was maybe about half full, probably not even. But there's definitely something about the movie that I simply cannot let go. The feeling lingers. The movie is actually not about the two-year old baby, but it's about the people who live in the trailers. There's no acute dramatic elements in this film but it leaves you with a subtle melancholy. The audience is exposed again and again to their substandard yet noble way of life and the presence of the two-year old baby merely accentuates it. The characters seem at ease with their trailer lives but what makes them really noble is that they do not want that kind of lives for the children. Their compassion is evident throughout the movie and that's what makes the movie so touching. The ending leaves you a little bewildered at first. But it does make sense because the movie is about the people who live in the trailer park and not really about the baby. The movie definitely goes slow but it's worth a watch.