Place, Setting, Perspective : Narrative Space in the Films of Nanni Moretti by Andrews Eleanor

Author:Andrews, Eleanor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Published: 2012-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

In The Son’s Room, mother and daughter, Paola and Irene, represent strong women who manage to cope better with the pain of losing a loved one than does Giovanni himself. In terms of gendered setting, Paola is seen fewer times in domestic areas such as the kitchen than her husband. Furthermore, she has her own job as a publisher and a place of work, separate from her living accommodation, that Giovanni only enters as a welcome guest. In fact, Paola is not the only female character to have a career: Silvia from Here Comes Bombo is an actress; Don Giulio’s mother in The Mass Is Ended works in a library; Bianca is a schoolteacher; there is a female journalist in Red Lob; in Dear Diary a reflexologist has her own consulting room; in April Moretti’s partner, Silvia Nono, works as a translator and Moretti’s mother, Agata Apicella Moretti, was a schoolteacher. The difference from The Son’s Room onward is the amount of screen time given to the female characters.

Although there are a number of important female filmmakers in Italy nowadays, including Francesca Archibugi, Stefania Casini, Liliana Cavani, Cristina Comencini, Francesca Comencini, Simona Izzo, Francesca Marciano, Cinzia Torrini, and Lina Wertmüller, in general, the world of filmmaking is still male dominated and the film studios portrayed in Moretti’s films are, with the exception of The Caiman, male-gendered settings. However, through the character of Teresa, the novice filmmaker in The Caiman, Moretti suggests an aspect of social change within twenty-first-century Italy. Apart from Valentina in Here Comes Bombo, Teresa is the only female character in Moretti’s work who is politicized, since Teresa has the strong desire to reveal the truth about the various scandals in the life of Silvio Berlusconi in her film. As a woman in a man’s world, Teresa is uncorrupted, fresh, determined, with a new attitude to filmmaking. This compares favorably with the jaded, cynical, and to some degree tainted film personnel whom she encounters in the production office and on the film set. These distinctions are seen in makeup, costume, and figure movement. While Teresa is petite, dressed in modern, casual clothing, the men of the film world are middle-aged, often corpulent, and drably attired. However, although she moves confidently through the enclosed office workspace, she is less dynamic on the open film set, where her inexperience and self-doubt show.

Film producer Bruno’s (Silvio Orlando) wife, Paola (Margherita Buy), in The Caiman has a fairly passive role as a wife and mother. She has a pale strained look, which is reinforced by her casual attire in pastel colors; she is often filmed in the traditional setting of the home, in particular in the kitchen preparing food. This appearance is in very strong contrast to her cinema presence in her role as the powerful and dominant Aïdra. On the screen this difference is shown through makeup, costume, and figure movement. Aïdra is glamorous, wearing bright colors and alluring clothes. She is depicted in action, moving swiftly through locations and making dramatic exits, for example through a sheet of plate glass.

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