L'amour avec des gants

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.

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.

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.

A lightweight, intermittently appealing movie of more than dubious sexual attitudes (are we supposed to think that Martina's prostitution -- for that's what it adds up to -- is charming just because the clients are weird? And their fetishes are not so terribly original.) However, there are some extremely funny moments. The dubbing of the blue movie is not to be missed.