Red Italy

1979
53m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A rich young woman tries to escape boredom and her controlling boyfriend with a series of dalliances with working-class men. She falls for a communist factory worker who rejects her because ... Read allA rich young woman tries to escape boredom and her controlling boyfriend with a series of dalliances with working-class men. She falls for a communist factory worker who rejects her because of their class differences.A rich young woman tries to escape boredom and her controlling boyfriend with a series of dalliances with working-class men. She falls for a communist factory worker who rejects her because of their class differences.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.4/10

YOUR RATING

1User review

See production info at IMDbPro

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5.0

Underground U.S.A.

Storyline

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Did you know

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Connections
Edited from Accattone (1961)

Soundtracks
Be-Bop-A-Lula
Written by Gene Vincent, Donald Graves and Bill Davis
Courtesy of ZE Records

User reviews1

Featured review

7/10

No Wave take on Italian film post-neorealism

A tall, rich, blonde woman, Monica, (played by Jennifer Miro of The Nuns) trawls the bars and dancehalls of an Italian city (actually Italian-looking locations in New York) trying to escape boredom and her wealthy, jealous boyfriend, Marcello.

She meets Gino (played by Eric Mitchell himself), a poor communist factory worker by day and dancehall musician by night.

This is a classic No Wave movie and, in that tradition, is extravagant and ambitious in the scope of its fiction, whilst remaining grounded by its miniscule budget into a raw street-level verite. No Wave films often parody mass cultural forms and Red Italy parodies the style of 1960/1970s post neo-realism cinema, e.g. Pasolini or Antonioni. Red Italy actually features a short clip of Pasolini's first feature film Accatone half way through.

Red Italy also contains a great sequence with Mitchell as the singer of a band consisting of the likes of John Lurie (of the Lounge Lizards) and Arto Lindsay (of the band DNA) playing a frazzled, jazzy cover version of Gene Vincent's "Be Bop a Lula".

As is usually the case in these No Wave films, the cast seem to be having a lot of fun. There's a great scene in a bar where No Wave regular, Patti Astor, has a genuine fit of giggles.

Red Italy is a must watch for anyone interested in New York's underground film scene.