CINEMA
THE JOURNEY MOTIF IN 20TH-CENTURY LITERATURE AND
ITALIAN CINEMA
To the children, women, and men
whose lives and talents were lost in war.
TONIA CATERINA RIVIELLO
Santa Clara University,
Santa Clara, California
Abstract:
The journey motif has the power of uniting beginning and end, in a circular
motion. In Cinema Paradiso, we witness Totò s reminiscing (in flashback
form) about his life in the town, Giancaldo, where he grew up without a
father lost to him in the Russian war. In This Black Stone Mourns, soldiers
are remembered for their sacrifices. The stone s reflection of the viewers
faces and the chiseled names of the fallen soldiers allow a process of fusion
between the past and present, the dead and the living. These works help us
determine what to preserve and what to leave behind in life s journey.
Gioseffi and Tornatore through their work put audiences in touch with
images and values that are overlooked in today s society, such as love of
family, motherland, and duty to country.
Key-words:
Gioseffi, Tornatore, poetry, cinema, Italian, journey, memorial.
he journey motif that pervades the Divine Comedy and many later
Italian works is explored by contemporary writers and filmmakers,
such as Giuseppe Tornatore in the film Cinema Paradiso (1990) and
Daniela Gioseffi in the poem This Black Stone Mourns (1999). In the film,
we witness Totò s reminiscing (in flashback form) about his life in the town,
Giancaldo, where he grew up without a father lost to him in the Russian
war. Totò comes home from military service with great expectations of
rekindling his love for Elena. Years later, Totò s second return home is a
journey dedicated to respect and love for his childhood friend, Alfredo, a
father-like figure and mentor. This return is a visit of closure with his past,
with familiar corners of the town, and especially with the local theater,
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Cinema Paradiso. Though inoperative structure is condemned, he has an
opportunity to visit the very place where Elena surprised him and kissed him
for the first time. The mature Totò a famous movie director wanders
through and observes with love and admiration every corner of what had
been his second home, his work, his love. In this place, he proved himself a
local hero by saving Alfredo s life, by venturing into the burning theater, like
a young soldier. Totò s return home allows him to say goodbye to the man
and the theater, to sculpt in memory his past and the people who had
animated his world. As the theater is imploded, the old citizens are sad and
tearful, whereas the youngsters venture into the dust cloud of demolition,
chasing each other through the clouds of dust for amusement.
In This Black Stone Mourns the soldiers are remembered for their
sacrifices. The stone s reflection of the viewers faces and the chiseled names
of the fallen soldiers allow a process of fusion between the past and present,
the dead and the living. When the visitors read the names, they can
simultaneously see their own images. The reflected images invoke the
soldiers as living beings, whose names bring to immediate reality the very
individuals who are buried in foreign lands and unknown places. This
symbiosis allows families and loved ones to feel united again. This symbiosis
has two levels in Cinema Paradiso. First, the viewer of the film is brought in
contact with images from a foreign culture as well as Italian films. Second,
the townspeople come together to form a chorus as in classical theater that
anticipates and comments on the action. The repeated dramas of the big
screen encourage them to participate, cry openly, and memorize the lines. As
in the reading process, reality and drama thrive when a heart and mind feel
and learn from the experience. In both works of the imagination, when
audiences assemble, works of literature, film and art, come alive. Both
artistic realities show what an essential role an audience plays in animating
an artist s original intuitions. The poem and film move the audience to cry
out for the youthful lives wasted in foreign lands, be it Vietnam or Russia. As
a viewer of Totò s artistic potential, Alfredo urges him to leave Sicily, where
there would be psychological death for a young man who has no social
advantages and is an orphan from the world war.
A complementary relationship exists between a finished work of art, such
as This Black Stone Mourns and Cinema Paradiso, and its audience. The
physical manifestation, such as a memorial in Washington D. C. or the
published film, creates a symbiosis with the audience, who views, appreciates
and renders homage to what that manifestation stands for. In this process,
past and present are reunited. In the poem, Daniela Gioseffi wants to give
stature to individuals who died without having lived and loved and
contributed for a lifespan on this earth. She starts with the Vietnam war and
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all the devastation that it created for years in both the United States and
Vietnam. This poem emerges as a eulogy for the thousands of young
Americans and Vietnamese, who died for no justifiable cause. Perhaps now is
the time for Gioseffi to bring them to life again and restore what was taken
away. She refers to our wasted lives, expandable / Commodities for rich
bureaucrats who fear the loss of obscene wealth and power . Through their
voices from the after-life, they assert the uselessness of wars that have
destroyed entire families, especially in Vietnam. Although the black stone
records each name, it does not give any commentary on the identity and
individuality of the sacrificed . Each name represents neither a culprit nor
a hero , only a sacrificed youth.
The second stanza of her poem elaborates on the dualities of life and death,
motion and stillness. Gioseffi lends the soldiers a voice that is speaking
directly to the reader. As poet, she is acting as an intermediary for them. The
voice exhorts future leaders and citizens to consider past consequences before
committing their youths and resources to a war. Won or lost, wars leave
devastation, just as earthquakes, floods and fires do. Memory of this grave
loss is the only vestige of their once beautiful minds and healthy bodies.
Gioseffi is ambivalent about the presence of moss on the monument.
Because the moss is not allowed to grow and cover their monument, it
remains like an open wound. Gioseffi brilliantly indicates that the normal
cycle of life, death, and re-birth is not being allowed to proceed. If moss were
allowed to cover the stone, it would at least give the appearance of nature s
normal cycles continuing. In this monument, however, there will be only
death and coldness. The last line of the poem ( Buried without guitars or
slippers ) leaves us with simple and familiar images. These soldiers died
before achieving their full potential, deprived of a death among loved ones
and the minimal comforts of home. Guitars and slippers are both personal
possessions that can be a solace even to the lonely soul.
Present family and family left behind inform Tornatore s film, which
renders authentic images of southern Italy, where much suffering and
deprivation have accompanied life for centuries. Gioseffi and Tornatore are
descendants of the South and suggest that as the modern world grows busier
and busier there should be more understanding and loving for those who were
exposed to the thunder of warfare or denied happiness by circumstances.
Society should provide a place of dreams and contemplation for those who
struggle for peace. These works help us determine what to preserve and what
to leave behind in life s journey. In the moment of crisis, no one is permitted
a full perspective on battle, whether military, societal or personal.
In Cinema Paradiso, the viewer is exposed to both multiple global realities
and local customs. The audience registers the emotional charm of the
Hollywood films and Italian black-and-white masterpieces. Traditional
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ITALIAN CINEMA
gender roles are highlighted at many times and in different places, even in
theater seating, where women and children sit in front and men in the back.
The local priest enforces traditional mores as he scrutinizes the films,
excising the kissing and suggestive scenes, perhaps permissible in a
metropolis. Millicent Marcus notes that there are three people who scan the
movies for suggestive scenes before they are shown to the general audience:
the priest (who raises his hand and rings a bell), Alfredo (who marks the
scenes to be removed with strips of paper), and Totò (who enjoys
voyeuristic transgressive, peeking from behind the curtains .)1 Tornatore as
film-maker lovingly records the twilight of this traditional society, where the
priest is the last man standing between the productions of modern media from
Hollywood and Rome and the innocence of rural Giancaldo with engrained
religious beliefs. With respect to his own film, Tornatore replaces the priest,
selecting those episodes of youthful experience that should be preserved and
those that should be suppressed. In this study, we treat Tornatore s shortened
version as the definitive complete work of art, winner of the 1990
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. By the end of the story,
Tornatore is clearly identified with the protagonist, Totò, who has grown into
a mature director residing in Rome. By returning to his native town, the
protagonist reestablishes contact with his homeland, which Abrams identifies
as an ancient journey motif: [I]n a reading of the Homeric epic that was to
be echoed by many later writers, Plotinus interprets the circular voyage of
Odysseus as an allegory for each person s internal journey in quest of the
spiritual home and father that were earlier abandoned 2.
In his work of the imagination, the director emphasizes the feelings rushing
into a protagonist s heart and mind while renewing acquaintances after a
prolonged absence. The original house, where his mother and sister still live,
becomes a synecdoche for childhood, an unadorned, serene paradise. Within
the first few minutes of the film, identification is made between Totò s
childhood house and the past and between Totò s Roman house and the
present. When the viewer sees the director arriving in an expensive car,
walking between tall columns, and entering his magnificently furnished
residence in Rome, a comparison with royalty is suggested. These brief
scenes help to substantiate that Totò has made a name for himself beyond the
boundaries of a single community. We can thus understand during the funeral
procession of Alfredo why the theater owner would address him with formal
grammar rather than with the familiar form that he had used many years
before. Totò questions his switch of form, to which he confesses difficulty in
addressing a renowned person.
The director creates coincidences in the plot based on long-standing rituals.
The funeral of Alfredo and the implosion of the theater are two moments
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brought together after 30 years to highlight these emotional moments in a
cultural context. They show Totò s place in society, among the commoners,
the moviegoers, who are also present during the funeral/implosion. Totò
mixes freely in their society, as he did not in the banking society of Elena s
father. Totò s flashback begins with his social role as an altar boy3. Marcus
mentions that the wind chimes in a storm remind him of the ringing of the
bells during communion. We draw a further implication from this first
memory, that religion has made a permanent mark in his subconscious,
despite his absorption in work and dislike of formalities. The camera pans
from the beautiful bell tower to the simplicity of the piazza and the life of the
town. The first image of the piazza, the center of every Italian town, displays
a multitude of purposes for a single blank square, much like a screen in a
theater. We get a glimpse of society s levels in the community of old
Giancaldo, men going to work in the morning with their animals (either
donkeys or horses) and women going to the public fountain, some filling
their buckets, washing their hair, with plenty of spillage for the animals.
Other women, fully dressed and more reserved, fetch water in amphora for
drinking and cooking, resembling those biblical women described in the
laboriosa Nazareth, ove, nelle donne chine alla fontana, ravvisa l antica
immagine, dolce e piena di speranza, che dovette essere della Madonna
stessa 4.
The film portrays Totò s reactions and amusements at the changes
undergone by his home town and its treasured cinema in the town s piazza.
The third scene of the film shows an extensive clip from La Terra Trema by
Visconti. We are moved when one man humbly asks another what the
scrolling narrative means. The other states that he is unschooled as well and
cannot tell him. As the men come out of the theater, we hear them discuss the
significance of Ntoni s actions. They mention baffone , referring to the
moustaches of Stalin. The camera pans on another group of men, one saying
that Ntoni was working very hard with good intentions, another interrupting
him to assert that Ntoni was foolish to mortgage his family s house to buy a
boat. Another voice praises the strength of Ntoni s conviction to inspire
others to rebel against exploitative capitalists. Instead of watching passively,
these simple yet intelligent people detect and discuss cultural and political
overtones of the movies.
Totò leaves Giancaldo at peace with himself after his mother whom he
has not seen in years urges him to detach himself once and for all from
youthful, ghostly, romantic memories. Upon his return to Rome, we see him
being complemented by one of his collaborators: Doctor, my compliments
on your film . At this moment, Totò becomes Tornatore. Alfredo s gift, a
collection of forbidden film clips, helps him achieve a complete perspective
on his life and films. Cinema Paradiso is the journey of the director s
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maturation. His journey is complete because he is able to draw connections
between past and present.
From a wide perspective, one can see that the literal blinding of Alfredo is
parallel to the figurative blinding of Totò. Both events take place in the
projection room and bring together many levels of experience. In a prideful
demonstration of expertise, Alfredo shows Totò how to project a film on an
exterior wall in the piazza and thus please the audience that overflowed the
theater building. The film is a comedy in which a man trembles with fear as a
gun is put against his head. His facial contortions delight the audience, and
Alfredo positions himself far from the projector in order to revel in the
community s enjoyment. In this moment of levity and pride, the film jams,
ignites, and then explodes in Alfredo s face as he rushes back to his post, to
cut a section from the reel, as he had instructed young Totò to do.
Totò replaces Alfredo as projectionist and later is emotionally blinded, or
seriously impaired, by the unexpected visit of Elena while he is projecting a
film version of Homer s Odyssey on an exterior wall. The setting is the dock
of Giancaldo, with the audience seated both on the land and in boats.
Summer storm-clouds burst and rain down upon the audience, just as the film
depicts the Cyclops Polyphemus, blinded by the boastful Ulysses, throwing a
boulder from a great height toward the men fleeing in Ulysses boat. Both in
the film and in the town, the assembled crowd disperses hastily. As in the
case of Alfredo, Totò has momentarily abandoned his post and expresses
aloud his frustration at the length of summer without Elena. She then appears
in the frame so quickly and with such implausible excuses that the episode
appears at first to be a wish fulfillment rather than a real encounter. As they
kiss, we have trouble identifying her behind drenched hair. She takes the role
of the crafty Ulysses, boastful of the clever excuses she found to escape from
her over-protective father. Totò assumes the role of Polyphemus, expecting a
great reward after long labor, yet being blinded by deceitful actions. Rather
than engaging in any romantic dialogue, Totò announces to Elena that he
must leave for the military on Friday morning. She instantly promises to
return Thursday on the 5 o clock bus. This dark, turbulent scene is then
juxtaposed with a dry, lighted view of the empty piazza. It becomes evident
within seconds of her promise that it will not be fulfilled. Totò s hopes of
romance are then abruptly replaced by frantic military exercises and
commands from a drill sergeant. His numerous letters are returned with
address unknown , showing his persistent inability to perceive the reality of
the situation.
Life in Giancaldo represents a safe port, a refuge for the errant fishermen of
Acitrezza in La terra trema, had they only been able to pass by Giancarlo s
dock. Through the reliving of Acitrezza s tragedy fallen upon Ntoni s family
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(through Visconti s masterpiece), Tornatore wants us to know how lucky his
protagonist has been. As Ulysses defies an ancient rule that man should
stay within known boundaries and ventures beyond the colonne d Ercole
(Hercules columns), Totò crosses the strait of Messina to arrive in Cinecittà
(the Italian Hollywood) in the outskirts of Rome. Ulysses ten-year
wanderings are parallel to Totò s thirty years of self-exile from his homeland.
We surmise that Tornatore intentionally includes a longer film clip from La
terra Trema because he wants to stress a story of a man attempting to break
out of a traditional role. The great difference between Totò and Ntoni is that
Totò receives and follows his mentor s repeated advice and encouragement to
leave Giancaldo and his romantic hopes behind, whereas Ntoni is totally
blinded by the hope that economic success will allow him to gain the love of
the opportunistic Nedda. She goes so far as to tell Ntoni that she will marry
him after he has achieved financial independence. By putting Elena in his
collection of concluded experiences, Totò acknowledges that she is part of
the irretrievable past. He puts her in proper perspective, keeping a special
place for her in his heart, while remaining free of the anxiety and torment of
his youthful passion.
Cinematography and pacing are emphasized at the outset of Cinema
Paradiso, with a beautiful white and blue seascape and fine white drapes
flying in the Mediterranean breeze. Slowly, the camera pans inside a house,
where Totò s mother is calling her son in Rome. The camera pans on a
collection of untouched lemons. We later see another fruit bowl with lemons,
while young Totò is having quiet fun in the presence of his mother, calmly
sewing. This is one of few scenes depicting domestic peace, yet, as in so
many other scenes, Tornatore has incorporated opposite elements. Totò is
viewing frames of (highly flammable) cowboy clips against a lantern, safe by
virtue of his emulating Alfredo s method. Soon after, we learn that a fire has
erupted in their home and that his little sister has miraculously escaped
injury. We can infer that the sister did not have any safe model to emulate
and thus endangered herself and the home. We should bear in mind that
despite negative experiences associated with the movies and punishments for
Totò, the mother ultimately encourages him to pursue his dreams to become a
film director, rather than to stay in this land of ghosts . Macnab writes that
Tornatore s recreation of the 1940s Sicily is heart-felt and well-observed
[ ] . The actor Salvatore Cascio brings plenty of elfin charm to the role of
the future film-maker as an impressionable boy, and the landscapes are
lovingly shot 5.
Near the end of the film, the mature Totò surveys the relics in the rundown
theater, and then, through broken glass and spider webs, he sees the blue bus
in the bustling piazza, hardly recognizable in a sea of cars, striving for its
once central position. Giancaldo is not in the forefront of innovation
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ITALIAN CINEMA
nevertheless, the piazza is far too crowded for sheep and donkeys to roam
freely in. The director takes the measure of material progress as young Totò
leaves on the train (a public transport) and returns as an adult on an airplane
and in a (private) taxi. The method of imploding a building is another clear
example of modern techniques reaching remote regions6.
Before the fire scene, a long, funny sequence of American comic films
overcrowds the theater, and some people exit the theater. Alfredo says to
Totò, can we let these crazies be happy? He is endeavoring to impress his
protégé and perhaps the audience by a novel projection strategy on an
exterior wall of the piazza. The ingenious and self-taught Totò questions
whether it can be done, then gladly joins Alfredo outside to watch the
awestruck crowd. The last images of Alfredo s face before the fire are sad
and worried, as if he knows implicitly that something is going to go wrong.
When fire erupts, adults and children run for their lives. Only Totò, who
stumbles in his panic and thinks twice, runs back into the projection room,
where he pulls Alfredo single-handedly down the steps. Though heroic, Totò
must have been emotionally scarred by this horrible predicament. Another
person traumatized by this incident is the disturbed young man who claims
ownership of the public square. He starts leaping frantically, calling out for
Alfredo. Throughout the film, Tornatore uses him as a weather vane to
indicate changes of any kind, both sudden tragic set-backs and gradual
progress. Totò shows a similar sensitivity when he relates to his mother that
he had been afraid to come back to Giancaldo earlier, because the past is still
very much present, as if he had never left.
His memories of childhood begin with a missing piece, a motif that is
detectible in many aspects of Cinema Paradiso. Totò is too tired from
Saturday night at the movies to remain awake until the culmination of the
mass and ring a bell, as a good altar boy should8. More seriously, his father is
missing in the war, never to return. The kissing scenes are missing when the
public views the films in Giancaldo. The scene when he departs for Rome
shows in extreme close-up Totò s arms hugging his mother and then sister,
whereas no kissing is shown and dialogue is conspicuously absent. No
personal relationship with his sister is ever depicted. All details of the career
that have brought him fame are missing. We do not even know whether he is
a director or producer. Yet, we can identify the forces in society that have
created these missing pieces: politics (his father), morality (the kissing
scenes), economics (Elena). Unlike La terra Trema, which is highly political
in inspiration, this film is more personal and positive with respect to social
mobility. Totò first sees Elena through the medium of cinema, his first handheld camera. Only later does he see her in person, accompanied by terse,
artificial dialogues that leave him frustrated and feeling inept. Their first kiss
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is a more eloquent meeting, silent in the noisy projection room. Framed by a
collection of dark film clips that have been edited out and hung on the white
wall, this is a brief moment of paradise for Totò before the film reel ends and
noisy objections are raised by the viewing public.
Alfredo is like the Vietnam veterans who receive too little credit, attention,
and sympathy in the time of troubles and a proper memorial only years later.
After Alfredo nearly dies, we do not see the citizens of Giancaldo paying
visits to him during his long convalescence. They are more preoccupied by
the interruption of amusement in their lives and by the good luck that
replaces it8. It should come as no surprise that Alfredo urges Totò to leave
permanently for Rome during a stroll along the dock (littered with anchors)
having realized silently that he (the man who dared so much to please the
public) receives visits only from Totò, before his leaving for the military and
upon his return. Alfredo would be justified in thinking of himself as a
sacrificial lamb for the community. One momentary lapse of attention can
have fatal consequences, even for a projectionist serving a community at
peace. Both are dealing with machinery that needs constant vigilance to be
maintained in working order9.
When Alfredo and Totò sit by the seaside, they are in the mid-ground of the
camera frame. The sea, to which the blind Alfredo directs Totò, upon which a
journey may be initiated or ended, appears distant and forlorn in the
background, while silhouetted anchors dominate the foreground, rusting
symbols of immobility and decay. Life alternatives for Totò are starkly
portrayed: he must choose either to remain among the immediate tangle of
treacherous anchors or to go beyond them to the open sea10. It seems fitting
that fresh sea air should accompany their discourse on the stagnant life of
Giancaldo and romantic entanglements versus the vibrant prospects that
Rome has to offer to an aspiring young man.
We see the communal society of the past replaced by individualistic
society, represented by personal automobiles and marked parking spaces. The
influence of television on Italian society stretched from north to south. As
with the movies 30 years before, each movie theater chooses the films to be
shown, which could differ from town to town in the same region. At the
beginning, Italian television had a very limited number of channels, resulting
in people watching the same program and each family watching in their own
homes. What was lost was the community reaction and commentaries on
those films. A common element was the re-run, which leads to memorization
of the lines by the audience in Giancaldo. The director wants to say that
although many have seen the same films, they continue to go to nuovo
Cinema Paradiso to watch the reaction of the others. Kissin writes that The
picture and it stars as familial as the family, were the essential source and
stimulant of the local imagination 11. Marinella Colummi Camerino writes,
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The journey defines and semiotically structures a complex reality. The
journey is an event, but it is also a notion pregnant with images, perceptions,
and volitions. As a rule, it constitutes a physical link between two diverse and
removed worlds, the bourgeois and the rural. By linking and comparing these
two worlds, the journey redefined the boundaries not only of reality but
especially of literary reality 12. We see how the definition that Camerino
gives of Ippolito Nievo s Novelliere compagnuolo is very close to the simple,
genuine community described by Tornatore.
Some cultural references are obvious, as when Totò returns home from
military service and his dog is first in recognizing and welcoming him, as
Ulysses dog had done long before. In the love story of Totò and Elena, one
may be reminded of where and when Petrarch met Laura, his lifelong muse.
On Holy Friday, a day of mourning, love caught Petrarch with his guard
down: one may conjecture that Totò chooses the same day to ensnare Elena
as she goes to confession. In such a surprising setting, she might reciprocate
his affection. Totò fails in this attempt, proving himself as a young man still
inept at courting and culturally insensitive by declaring his love when he
should be mourning the death of Christ for our own salvation. On Holy
Friday, the only day when no films are shown, Totò and Alfredo go to the
procession, the church, and the confessional. Totò tricks Father Adelfio into
exchanging places with him when Elena enters the confessional. Nonetheless,
Elena is the one who hears a lengthy confession13. If Totò were just
confessing his love for her, it would not be so hazardous. His revelation that
she is his first love subjects him unduly to her unknown personality.
Unintentionally, he confesses his weakness rather than his love. He cannot
discern what is good for him and what will be destructive. When she answers
that she does not love him, Totò makes a further mistake by telling her that
he can wait for her to fall in love with him. He shows that he has taken the
wrong lesson from Alfredo s fable, about a soldier who abandoned a hopeless
love, by telling Elena that he is going to stay under her window for as long as
it takes, an unconditional statement that she exploits as an undying promise14.
After many trying nights, New Year s Eve arrives and her window opens,
giving hope to Totò. He takes it as a sign of acceptance momentarily, until
midnight approaches and neighbors throw obsolete objects from their
windows, Elena s window closes, and her light is turned off, thus combining
acts of emotional and physical rejection15. From this scene we are reminded
that the opposite of love is indifference and that Dante identifies the worse
time to be unhappy as the time when everyone else is celebrating16.
As in Classic and Renaissance Literature, a storm in Cinema Paradiso
serves to strip away artificiality and social convenience, multiple layers of
masks. Totò s elegant Roman house depicts a catalytic moment that reenacts
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and reunites past and present amidst lightening burst and thunder. Like King
Lear, who reaches his highest awareness during a storm after he has been
stripped of all royal vestments and customary privileges, which have shielded
him from the truth about his family, mature Totò can see his past in flashback
form and take away the truth about Elena. The exhausted director has been
shielded from dwelling upon regrets by the busy, irregular working hours of
an ambitious film executive. Contemporary tragedy is referenced in the
showing of Visconti s La Terra Trema. An important cultural aspect is when
the men discuss the film s moral and political implications as they exit the
theater. Nedda ends up marrying the nastiest character, who waits for
moments of weakness to seize the hard-earned pay and property of others.
Nedda marries a ruffian who happens to belong to a more affluent class,
without comparing with Ntoni in a moral sense. The ruffian has no clear
personal distinction. (In the shortened version of Cinema Paradiso, Tornatore
wisely frees his creation Totò from any flattering comparisons with romantic
rivals.) Cinema Paradiso has two modes of operation, very fast in parts and
slow aspects when Alfredo and Totò s mother discuss feelings and customs.
Their advice to him includes insubstantial intuitions (Alfredo s unexplained
fable and his mother s hope for her husband s return) tempered with stern
and realistic assessments of Giancaldo s limited opportunities and Totò s
lingering memories of Elena.
Totò loses his first love, Elena, and subsequently does not choose to marry
for the sake of marrying. Though he dates many women, as we find out at the
end, he is still single and continues to devote his life to his work, to the world
of cinema. This man cares more about his ideals and secret dreams than
living a life of convention, with its restrictive rules. Unlike his peers, he
foregoes marriage and dedicates himself to enhancing the communal legacy,
and like Tornatore, preserves his childhood memories and the traditions of
filmmaking: the visual preservation of a rich culture. With this work Italy is
well represented in its contribution to the enriching journey of the human
spirit.
At the very end when he opens Alfredo s gift box in a big private screening
room in Rome, we see the mature director watch numerous kissing scenes, all
cut by order of father Adelfio and some of which he had seen when spying as
a boy. The word FINE (The End) appears, immobile for few seconds until
a simulated burn in the film emerges, from which spring old images from the
life of Giancaldo and the characters who had been part of Totò s youth. Totò
is featured abundantly, and we are left at the end with three images. First is
Totò as an adult. Second is Elena (out of focus) as young Totò had
accidentally filmed her on his first assignment, when he did not know who
she was. Third, we see the adult Totò perhaps in a café, a locale central to
Italian life in big cities and small towns. By choosing this image as his last,
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Tornatore implicitly shows to the viewer certain daily rituals that Italians of
all classes and regions share. Tornatore makes his protagonist move out of
his private and career environments and places him in a public sphere where
Italians of all classes can share in a public ritual. The last image assures the
viewer that Totò has transcended his past without losing his authenticity as a
member of the human community.
The journey motif has the power of uniting beginning and end, in a circular
motion. The process of unifying one s experience can also help erase the
bitterness and regrets of a lifetime, and possibly transform them into art. As
Alfredo says, when we go away and return after many years we can
understand that we could not be who we are today without going through the
experiences and meetings of diverse people and challenging places17. Even
treacherous hazards can be marked with buoys for others to steer around in
their journeys. The strange characters that we meet on life s journey can
teach us something valuable for the continuation of the journey. Each
meeting and image along the journey makes us stronger and more complete
in apprehending our purpose and ultimate place in the world. Both Gioseffi
and Tornatore through their work put audiences in touch with images and
values that are overlooked in today s society, such as love of family,
motherland, and duty to country. They underscore the guiding role that others
have in inspiring young minds and souls.
__________
NOTES
1
Marcus, p. 202.
M. H. Abrams, Spiritual Travelers in Western Literature , in Magliocchetti
and Verna, p. 6.
3
Marcus writes that The middle-aged Salvatore, now a successful filmmaker
in his own right, has just heard the news that Alfredo is dead, and as he lies
awake in his apartment in Rome the sound of wind chimes outside his
bedroom window takes him back forty years to the sound of the bell that he,
as altar boy, was supposed to ring at appropriate intervals during mass , p.
201.
4
De Caprio, p. 119.
5
Macnab, p. 93.
6
Three times the blue bus is seen in the piazza, which is used between small
towns where there is no railroad. It is called la corriera . The first time when
Elena is supposed to arrive at 5 PM. Totò sees the bus leave after the mail
bag has been loaded. He looks down from the terrace of the Cinema Paradiso.
The second time the bus arrives at a completely empty piazza. No one is
253
2
TONIA CATERINA RIVIELLO
waiting for Totò s return from the military. As he arrives, with two small
suitcases, and reaches the Cinema Paradiso from the piazza, his dog greets
him, just as Ulysses dog had long before. The third time we see the bus
arrive in a crowed piazza and a cleaning truck moving forward.
7
Cinema Paradiso is the locale where Totò can achieve communion with the
people of Giancaldo.
8
A lottery winner proudly rebuilds and manages the nuovo Cinema Paradiso.
9
The number three appears in the movie early on when Totò follows the
priest to the movie theater where he screens movies. The priest is there for
the morality, Alfredo for his work, Totò for artistic curiosity of a future
director. There are also three farewells between Alfredo and Totò, first when
he leaves for the military, second when he goes to Rome, and third when
Totò comes to a funeral. At the second farewell, the abandoned anchors are
dark symbols for Elena and other entanglements, such as the job of
projectionist.
10
Upon returning from the military, it is on this troublesome landscape that
Alfredo asks Totò if he has heard from Elena. He answers that he has not, so
Alfredo advises him to leave this malignant land, since he is young and the
world is his. Alfredo continues that one must go away for a long time. After
having made a name for himself (as Ulysses was eager to do), he can return.
People should talk about him because he is well-known. If he comes back
after a little while, he will think that everything has stopped while he was
gone, whereas everything has in fact changed and he will not recognize
reality. Later, his mother urges him to pursue a career in Rome.
11
Kissin, p. 363.
12
Marinella Colummi Camerino, in The Journey in Ippolito Nievo s
Narrative: Typologies , in Magliocchetti and Verna, p. 127.
13
The only kiss unrelated to a departure that the young Totò gives Alfredo is
when Alfredo agrees that he needs clarification from Father Aldelfio on his
doubts about the multiplication of the fish by Jesus.
14
Kissin writes that Alfredo absorbs his own attitudes from the movies. His
pronouncements represent the collective folk wisdom of Hollywood as he
respectfully both quotes and credits Spencer Tracy and John Wayne dubbed
into Italian . We should remember, however, that when Totò jokingly asks
Alfredo which film star gave him the idea that one must leave home for a
long time, Alfredo seriously responds that this time he is speaking for
himself.
15
The throwing of the objects on New Year s Eve is parallel to the throwing
of the rocks by Polyphemus toward Ulysses and his men.
16
The army joke that Totò tells Alfredo is an example of the two destinies of
Totò as a filmmaker. Such a joke fools no one, Totò is the only one laughing,
254
THE JOURNEY MOTIF IN 20TH-CENTURY LITERATURE AND
ITALIAN CINEMA
a false laugh, perhaps? The two scenes with Alfredo and Elena show his
ineptness at personal expression and self-preservation.
17
Unpleasant experiences can be seen as teaching devices for the formation
of the personality and education of the individual.
WORKS CITED
De Caprio, Caterina. Inaffidabili e Pellegrini: Viaggiatori italiani tra
Ottocento e Novecento, Napoli: Edizioni Libreria Dante & Descartes,
2000.
Johnson, Terry. This mellow movie could restore your faith in film ,
Review in Alberta Report / Newsmagazine, 1/2/95, Vol. 22, Issue 3.
Kissin, Eva H. Film in Review; June/July 1990, Vol. 41, Issue 6/7.
Macnab, Geoffrey. Sight & Sound, May 2007, Vol. 17, Issue 5.
Magliocchetti, Bruno and Anthony Verna (eds.). The Motif of the Journey
in Nineteenth-century Italian Literature, Intoduction by M. H. Abrams,
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1994.
Marcus, Millicent. After Fellini: National Cinema in the Postmodern Age,
Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
255