Reviews (2)

A Stunningly Masterful Telling of an Intimate Story
THE WAY WE LAUGHED is clearly one of the finest films ever made about the intensity of familial connections in general, and brotherly love in particular. Gianni Amelio is a sensitive director not only to storyline, but to character development, scenic atmosphere, capturing monumental conversations in the mere lingering of the camera on the eyes of the characters, pacing, and in inspiring his actors.

The story is about two brothers from Sicily - Pietro, the younger brother has left home for Turin, Italy creating a life style and appearance of an upper class lad, and the older brother Giovanni who is illiterate, real, warm and a laborer whose life is focused on the pride he feels for his younger brother's intellectual achievements: Giovanni is just arriving in Turin as the film opens in 1958. The story spans 6 years, is divided into six chapters - one day in each of the 6 years - and it is from these short glimpses that we are asked to follow the interaction of the two brothers.

For all of Giovanni's warmth and open love for his younger brother Pietro, the Younger Pietro appears secretive, has odd habits, is quietly deceitful, yet accepts the hospitable and financial love and assistance from his brother. There are long stretches of silence between the brothers about which we are not informed, and events transpire that lead Pietro to become a successful student and Giovanni to become a Padron for immigrants, gradually raising himself to be a married landowner.
In the 5th chapter we see a conflict that involves both brothers and a third 'victim' and it is this unfortunate crime that forever alters the lives of both brothers. This turning point is magnified in the last chapter as the successful Giovanni has just had a son named for his brother and the brother is summoned to his large home in the Po River Valley to stand as Godfather to his nephew. But the change in the once proud Pietro shows a role reversal and while some may consider he has been in an institution for drugs or something else, he actually has been in Reform School, having lost all his joy for life, and now will proceed to prison. Though the reason for his downfall is not clear, it appears in retrospect that he has taken the blame for Giovanni's crime - perhaps the more compassionate standard of brotherly love imaginable. At any rate, the film leaves us with the concept that there is no way to measure the depth of love in familial bonds between two brothers. There is no right, there is no wrong, there is only love.

This is visually a dramatic epic that manages to capture the grit and grime of the living conditions of the poor working class in Turin, the wondrous plays of light in the deserted streets of Turin at night, and the redemptive beauty of the sun-drenched Po River Valley where the films comes to an end. Enrico Lo Verso is amazingly fine as Giovanni, walking with all the pride of Sicily and the humility of the uneducated. As Pietro, Francesco Guiffrida captures every facet of this enigmatic character and slowly wins our compassion for the road he has elected to take. THE WAY WE LAUGHED is a brilliant achievement and another example of the extraordinary work of Italian cinematic talent.

One of the Most Remarkable Films of Any Decade
This film is one of the most remarkable and touching movies to come along in decades and deserves to be seen by anyone who appreciates the craft of movie making.

The film, directed by Gianni Amelio, and set in the late 1950s and early 1960s, centers on the relationship between two Sicilian brothers in Turin: the older brother Giovanni (Enrico Lo Verso) and his younger sibling Pietro (Francesco Guiffrida). Pietro is too slick for his own good; he's an operator who has clearly been raised to believe he's smarter than everyone else around him. He lies, cuts class and takes care only of himself. At the beginning of the film, when he ducks out of meeting his brother at the train depot, we learn that Pietro is embarrassed by his older brother, Giovanni, an illiterate laborer who has traveled up from Sicily to be with his brother.

Pietro's motivations are lost entirely on Giovanni, who loves his younger brother unconditionally. Giovanni takes a series of dead end jobs to help support Pietro's schooling, not knowing that his younger brother is the worst student in class, cuts class constantly, and has no regard for the opportunities he's been given. Giovanni is motivated entirely by providing for his younger brother's success, and indeed, he tells all of his co-workers at his various backbreaking jobs about his brother the student, and what a tremendous success he is.

"The Way We Laughed" doesn't deal with time in a straight linear fashion, and it moves ahead by years at a time. By the film's conclusion, Giovanni has become through his hard work a successful landowner with a large spread in the Po River Valley. His brother, Pietro, has had some kind of a breakdown, or maybe has become a drug addict (it's not entirely clear), but nonetheless, Giovanni still takes care of him and seeks to provide for him. In the touching final scenes of the film, Giovanni brings his dazed, mute younger brother to his estate to meet his wife and children.

The themes of "The Way We Laughed" have been around for centuries, but they have seldom been handled with such beauty or evocation. The exultation of the hard working and illiterate, but ultimately good-hearted and honest older brother over the shifty, selfish and, in the end, self-destructive younger brother, could easily have come off as preachy and abrasively conservative; that is decidedly not the case with this film. Indeed, in seeing this film again and thinking about it, the movie reminds me very much of Flannery O'Connor's short story, "Everything That Rises Must Converge," not only in the juxtaposition of its themes, but also in the deftness with which those themes are handled. It's no easy thing to handle the millennia-old prodigal son theme, and still wring something fresh out of it, but that's what Gianni Amelio does with this film.

One other aspect of "The Way We Laughed" that deserves special mention is the cinematography, which is lush and beautiful, and which sets a perfect tone for the various acts of the movie: Turin is dark, wet and foreboding, the Po River Valley is colorful, rich and sunny. etc...

In sum, "The Way We Laughed" is a movie that any cineaste must see and will most certainly enjoy. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

"Every File a Corpse."
The Italian film "Open Doors" is set in 1937 Fascist Italy. A minor government official, Tommaso Scalia is sacked for embezzling funds. He retaliates by murdering his former boss, the man who replaced him, and then rapes and murders his own wife. Following the bloodshed, Scalia returns home to his young son, lies down on the bed, and waits to be arrested.

Judges are rounded up for the trial, and they are pressured to hand down a guilty verdict which is to be followed by execution. Even Scalia demands the death penalty, and the trial begins with a heated political statement from Scalia to the courtroom. One judge, Vito Di Francesco does not bend to the pressure of public opinion but quietly and stubbornly insists on conducting a through trial.

While the film attempts to deal with broader issues--Fascism vs. democracy, the death penalty, and whether or not Scalia is a victim of a corrupt system and guilty of crimes with extenuating circumstances--for me the story did not really move much beyond repugnance for Scalia's character. It's true that I wanted to know "why" he murdered three people, but I failed to see--even with the facts--that Scalia was the slightest bit sympathetic or even a victim of circumstance. Scalia was repulsive, and he committed some repulsive crimes. The film failed to present a convincing argument that Scalia was a victim of the Fascist state or any other such stuff. The film was ponderous, and only the performance of Gian Maria Volonte really made it worth watching. His character was the most interesting in the entire film. Compared to Amelio's other films "Lamerica" and "Stolen Children", "Open Doors" was a disappointment--displacedhuman

Great movie from a fantastic book!
"Il Duce" once suggested that he would make such a safe and clean place out of Italy, that people would be able to sleep at night with "Open Doors".
Memorable conversations that only Leonardo Sciascia could write, the unforgettable prescence of Gian Maria Volonte, and that superb line by one of the main characters: "I would rather sleep with the doors closed", meaning, I would rather take all the "imperfections" of democracy, than the false peace and quiet of the torture chambers and jails of Musolini. Powerful stuff. Hope to see it one day on DVD. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

A movie that shows reality
L'america is a great movie that gives a lot of emotions, especially to the albanian people for the changes that happened during that period.You had to be there to really understand what was going on.
Albania is a small country in the Balkan Peninsula with a bitter history through centuries.It has been invaded many times starting with the romans,turks,italians and germans.But all that didn't stop albanians to save their culture,traditions and the language which is the oldest of the Indo-Europian languages. Albanians are very good people,very generous and brave.
I am talking a little to much away from the movie, but as an albanian I feel the responsability to let whoever reads this review know: Albania is a small country with a great heart and time has steped on Her with no mercy.
FALEMINDERIT-in albanian means (THANK YOU) in english

"Men with lice don't sleep well."
"Lamerica" from director Gianni Amelio is a political film set in Albania. Albania has just emerged from years of communist rule, and two opportunistic Italians, Gino and Fiore come to Albania to set up a bogus shoe factory. Fiore has done this sort of thing before. Gino--the younger man--has not. In order to set up the factory, the wheels of Albanian bureaucracy need to be greased. The plan is that investors or grants will fund the so-called factory, and the two Italians will set up the bogus company, grab all the money and run. This seems like a fairly simple plan, and one that has worked well for Fiore previously.

The minute Gino and Fiore arrive in Albania, it is clear that they are in the midst of a highly unstable and volatile political situation. 100s of troops are in the ruined streets, and starving beggars hound the well-dressed, well-fed Italians. Thousands of Albanians are desperate to leave and will go to any lengths to join the crowds of refugees swarming onto every ship, train or bus heading for the border. Italian culture permeates the poverty-stricken country. Everywhere they go, the Italians trip upon elements of Italian culture in the most unlikely places. The starving Albanians are narcotized by Italian game shows, and Albanian parents will give away a child on the off chance that fame awaits in Italy. Gino seems doubtful that the plan can work, but Fiore is more confident.

Albanian law requires the selection of an Albanian as the chairman of the company. The Italians require someone as a figurehead only--someone with no relatives, and their search leads them to the squalor of a former "model labor camp." There, the Italians are introduced to a pathetic, filthy old man who is called Spiro Tozai. But Tozai is not quite what he seems.

When Tozai goes missing, Gino begins the hunt for his precious 'chairman'. Gino leaves the relative comfort and security of his hotel to search for Tozai. One by one, the layers that separate Gino from the Albanians are stripped away, and Gino finds himself as helpless and desperate as the average Albanian. Gino is not a sympathetic character at all. He has no time for the beggars who line the streets--he is simply out for himself. In contrast, Tozai--a man who has suffered years of deprivation in a labor camp, cares for his fellow men. Gino's complete degradation becomes his journey towards joining the human race.

There are only two professional actors in this film, and yet every performance was solid. Lamerica is a perfect film. I recommend it without reservations--displacedhuman

Abject poverty in Albania sets the scene for a fine story
This award winning 1994 Italian film is sometimes hard to watch. The landscape is Albania in the early 90s, a country that had been first invaded by Mussolini and then kept subjugated by totalitarian rule until the recent breakup of communism. This leaves it open for two Italian racketeers to try to set up a bogus shoe factory. Problem is they need an Albanian to be chairman. And so they find an old man who they can call "chairman" and will sign all the proper papers.

Things get a little out of hand, when the old man, played by Carmelo DiMazzarelli, runs away. The younger racketeer, Enrico Lo Verson, goes out to look for him. What follows is a deeply moving drama set against the backdrop of the abject poverty in Albania. Here, almost everyone is a refugee, attempting to cross the Adriatic in a quest for a better life in Italy, which symbolically becomes "Lamerica", symbol of hope and freedom.

At the beginning of the film the young man is brash and arrogant. He has money and nice clothes and is quite willing to become part of the scheme. The old man has been a prisoner for 50 years and doesn't realize the passing of time, still thinking he is only 20. As the story develops, we find out he is not Albanian at all, but a WW2 deserter who yearns to return to Sicily to his wife and newborn son. The young man's goal, however, is to keep him in Albania.

But things happen. The young man's car gets stolen and he soon learns how little his money means in the countryside of Albania. For example, after walking for miles, they come to a café. The shopkeeper is clear. "Sorry, no water today. Today holiday. Maybe tomorrow." There isn't any food either. Just a television screen where dozens of men sit like zombies watching Italian TV.

The journey is long, and events worsen, but the relationship between the two men grows. It's all very subtle as we watch the old man gain in strength and wisdom and the young man gradually change his character. The acting is excellent, so excellent that I forgot they were actors. There's little action but yet every line had layers of meaning.

The poverty is disturbing. How could it ever have gotten this bad? But there's determination in every Albanian to strive for a better life. They do the best they can. And it sure opened my eyes. This is an important film. I'm glad I saw it. But I was left with a lingering sadness when it was over in spite of the fact that the ending was one of hope. This isn't a film for everyone. But those who want to be moved and are not afraid of the subject, I definitely recommend this film.

Moving!
A very nice movie portraying what life was like in Albania following the fall of communism. This movie is well done and filmed entirely in Albania. The documentary style filming of the movie gives you a real upclose look at the lives of ordianry Albanian citizens struggling to make ends meet at a time of a collapsed economy. Though this film is in Italian language, all of the characters except the two leading characters are Albanian.
The characters for the most part comprise of a non-professional cast to give the viewer a look at the harsh reality of post-communist life. The movie is interesting and fascinating to watch because you get to see a little of what Albania looks like. It is important to remember that Albania was Europe's most backward communist society. For four decades this Balkan country was isolated from the rest of the world. Even now Albania is Europe's and one of the world's least known countries. This film is a treat in that it introduces a litte of what Albania was like and still is, even if it is harsh and haunting. Another highlight of the film is that in many scenes it is possible to hear the Albanian language being spoken. Though the Italian dialogue is all subtitled, the Albanian dialogue is not. But, never the less it is interesting to hear the Albanian dialogue spoken by ordinary Albanian citizens.
This film is moving and touches you at the end when you realize why this film is titled Lamerica. A ship with hundreds of people seeking a better life of opportunity in a land that is not their own. This is something that occurs throughout the globe everyday. Lamerica is a film for everybody to learn from and appreciate for what they have.

Stunning
Lamerica is a moving and highly memorable film. ... Read more