Tre Brødre
“Three Brothers” (“Tre fratelli”) is the
second movie on the List by Italian director Francesco Rosi. Critiques may,
with some right, claim that this is a boring movie with not much happening, but
I found it engrossing and blissful to watch.
In a southern Italian village, an old man,
Donato (Charles Vanel), has lost his wife. He telegrams his three sons to come
for the wake and the funeral. The oldest of the three, Raffaelle (Phillipe
Noiret), is a judge in Rome and involved in cases against terrorists, much to
the chagrin of his wife. The second son, Rocco (Vittorio Mezzogiorno), is a
social worker and runs a ward for troubled children in Naples. He never
married, but has devoted his entire life to other people’s children. The
youngest is Nicola (Michele Placido), a worker’s right activist in Turin,
involved in strikes and disobedience in factories. He is separated from his
wife (she was unfaithful) and arrives with his daughter, a child of 8-10 years.
The three brothers live each in their own
reality, which in turn represents different versions of Italy: The sensible,
the progressive and the humanitarian. This would and probably should be a basis
for intense conflict, but Rosi takes a different view and tries to bring them
together instead. All three have lost touch with the world they come from, the
south Italian village, and returning to that place show them just how far they
have moved and what they have lost. None of them feels at home anymore and they
all feel deeply the loss. There is more at stake here for them than the loss of
a parent.
A central scene in the movie is a bedroom
where each brother lies on a bed dreaming. The dream of Raffaelle is of being assassinated
and how it devastates his wife. Rocco dreams of becoming a hero of the
children, wiping away all the threats to their existence (literally) and Nicola
dreams of going back to his wife to be reconciled. His dream also formulates
the alienation he feels with his past and the rootlessness that is the result
for all emigrants.
I am still not entirely certain what is the
conclusion of the movie and what Rosi’s message is. This has a lot to do with
him not going the obvious way to create conflict, but to merely show how far
away these people are from each other and yet be united in something that may
be bigger. They do argue, it would not be an Italian movie if they did not, but
it seems more like they are trying to explain themselves to people who have
difficulty understanding their position. Especially Raffaelle comes through
strongly, trying to explain that the judiciary system is by no means perfect,
but a hopeful means to improve things and that the alternative is an abyss of
anarchy. This is an interesting position given that Rosi has a reputation of
left leaning activistic movies.
A lot of the juxtaposition is between
Raffaelle and Nicola and that leaves Rocco as the third wheel. It is a bit
difficult to see where he comes in, in a conflict which is bipolar and as a
character he is far less developed than the other two. My guess is that in the
conflict between the established and the progressive, humanity should not be
forgotten. Maybe the church position?
The lasting impression however is one of
beauty and peace. The cinematography is stunning and the pictures are crisp and
soothing. It is a movie that gets me down in gear and leaves me content, even
if I am not entirely certain what it is I have been watching. If you are
looking for the Hollywood story arc, you look in vain This is not a movie to be
experienced as a crisis and a resolution, but is rather an image of a
microcosmos of Italy, sad, beautiful but also hopeful as the picture of old
Donato and his young granddaughter left behind on the farm at the funeral.
I liked “Three Brothers” a lot more than I
expected to and recommend it to anybody with the patience for this sort of
movies.
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