MEDITERRANEO
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney
MEDITERRANEO is an Italian film directed by Gabriele Salvatores, from a script by Vincenzo Monteleone. It stars Diego Abatantuono, Claudio Bisio, and Giuseppa Cederna. Unrated, includes nudity. In Italian, with English subtitles.
MEDITERRANEO, which won this year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, is a sweet, harmless fantasy about a group of misfits from the Italian Army who in 1941 are supposed to occupy an obscure Greek island. Instead, it would be fair to say that it is the island that occupies them. This is a retelling in some ways of the episode of the island of the Lotus-Eaters from the Odyssey, as the script is at some pains to remind us from time to time, even though the literary and cultural references are largely pro forma, and certainly meaningless.
And sitting through the movie is like a trip to lotus land for the audience as well. We rather cheerfully suspend reality as we begin to savor the idyllic life the Italians find there. The placidity, the lack of conflict, the abundance, willingness to share, all these things seem almost normal to us as we slip into the role of the conqueror who is conquered. The photography exploits the stunning scenery to the utmost. And we are lulled by the brilliant white rock, the glowing blue water, the inviting and dappled shade.
As escapism goes this film is like a little vacation. As films go, escapism needs some work, in both the sense that it lacks focus and in the sense of needing something to do. It's all pretty aimless and pointless, and whatever successes are scored in the main body of the film, the whole affair is weakened by an epilogue that could have been bittersweet, but instead is merely an exercise in "where are they now" and that worst of Italian cinematic weaknesses, sentimentality. If the film is meant to be an anti-war film, it could use a little conflict to show us what it is that it is against. At least there are no small children tugging at our heartstrings.
Now, I do not believe there is anything inherently wrong with beautiful scenery, lovely nude bodies of either sex, misfit soldier comedy, or easy-going fantasy. But I do rather find it all the more satisfying if there is some informing intelligence behind it all, some sense that there is point to be made, some vision of either the world that is or the world that ought to be. None of that obtains in MEDITERRANEO.
If you liked CINEMA PARADISO or KING OF HEARTS, you will probably like this film. If you're curious about what it takes to the Foreign Film Oscar, you might want to take this in, too, but you should pay matinee prices, or wait for a cheap video.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
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