Così ridevano (1998)

Director:

Gianni Amelio

Writers:

Gianni Amelio (writer) and
Daniele Gaglianone (writer) ...

Release Date:

2 October 1998 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Turin at the end of the fifties: two brothers have emigrated there from Sicily and the older works very...

Plot Keywords:

Turin | Sicily | Violence | Immigrant | Emigration

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Francesco Giuffrida	...	Pietro
Enrico Lo Verso	...	Giovanni
Rosaria Danzè	...	Lucia
Fabrizio Gifuni	...	Pelaia
Claudio Contartese	...	Rosario
Domenico Ragusa	...	Simone
Simonetta Benozzo	...	Ada
Pietro Paglietti	...	Battista
Corrado Borsa	...	Teacher at Examination
Barbara Braga	...	Girl at Bar
Calogero Caruana	...	Giovanni's Friend
Edoardo Ciciriello	...	School Assistant from Naples
Valerio Contartese	...	Unemployed Boy from Calabria
Iolanda Donnini	...	Mrs. Verusio
Erika Doria	...	Alessandra

Also Known As:

The Way We Laughed

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:L | France:U | Italy:T

Filming Locations:

Turin, Piedmont, Italy

Company:

Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematografica

Trivia:

The title refers to the back page of a popular 1950s Italian magazine which had a section devoted to old jokes that were no longer funny but still evoked a sense of nostalgia. One such joke is repeated throughout the film: "How do you get four elephants in a Fiat?" The answer: "Two in front and two in back".

Quotes:

Giovanni: You think your children are your own, then they learn to walk and they leave you. Know what they say back home? "Raise hogs, 'cause then you can eat them"

Movie Connections:

References Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960)

mezza sola

"mezza sola" means half a shoe sole in italian. It is an expression used to describe something that didn't quite satisfy. After all the oop-la, the expectations for this motion picture were high. But at the end, our "stomachs" were left empty. Production-wise, it was poor: most of the shots are indoors, with very few outdoor shots. In the entire movie length, only one vehicle is seen. The movie is billed as the emigrant experience of a southern italian to the industrialized city of Turin in the late '50s. It is actually a family drama of the relationship of two brothers. It used the Turin emigrant story as background, and yet the city was hardly seen. If the movie was billed as the story of two brothers in China's Shangai, one could hardly find a problem with it (I say this to emphasize how much the "indoor" shots were dense). Also, each single take seemed to be three seconds too loooong. It is as if the director is in love with the story, he is financing the movie with his own money, and thus he feels justified to make his story told on his long, boring way. The style of the cinematography and costumes is a Spielberg-like focus on a few pivotal items such as rope being used to tie shut-closed the overbulging suitcases, the rawness of clothing, and the thick sician accented dialogues. But, like Spielberg's, this picture was noticeable in that it was a historical drama *intentionally* retouched awash in a sepia-backgrounded memory. To me, it trivialized the story. A more sucessfull aproach is Lina Wertmuller's, that, while certain traits are over emphasized, but justified if the film is not a drama but a comedy, in which the focus is not the manieristic style itself but the story, this in a mannieristic background.