Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to war we go. That's the primary emotion in this idealistic, warm but undeniably scattered story about a group of Italian university students who decide to lay down their books and fight the fascists during World War II -- that is, their own countrymen and the Germans. It's a curious offering, perhaps to demonstrate that all Italians were not on the wrong side in that titanic battle, but its dewy sensibility and atonal ruptures never fully involve us in the story line.
"The Little Teachers", the opening-night offering at the 10th annual Nortel Palm Springs International Film Festival, met with the polite applause one expects from a gala crowd that is not exactly bowled over but wants to be appreciative nonetheless. Domestic distribution prospects look dim, unlike other Palm Springs opening-nighters such as "Cinema Paradiso" and "Enchanted April".
In this warm look at idealistic young men, director Daniele Luchetti's surest grasp is with the inherent comic aspects of a group of fresh-faced college boys deciding to take up arms and liberate Italy before Gen. Patton and his British counterparts roll into town. The group is led by square-jawed Gigi (Stefano Accorsi), who fancies the romantic aspects of going off to war, especially when the women wave their handkerchiefs and bat their eyes. The story strikes best in its droll sensibility as the filmmakers gently lampoon the idealism of the young, self-declared soldiers. Their idea of boot camp is not training for the rigors of hand-to-hand combat but debating the pros and cons of fascism and formulating intellectual constructs to justify their taking up arms.
These early preparation scenes are quite funny, a credit to the squadron of screenwriters (Luchetti, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli, Domenico Starnone), but like the gaggle of schoolboy soldiers, the scripting seems a participatory democracy so unfocused and lacking in thematic substructure that the story digresses to a mountain-trek, travelogue level. In short, the narrative seems impaired by the same drawback the boy soldiers have -- no particular plan or focus. After a while, speechmaking by the scholarly soldiers, often callow and simplistic, wears thin, even in its comic dimensions.
In this post-"Saving Private Ryan" age, the battle scenes seem woefully stylized and, hence, false. Still, there's much to praise, especially Luchetti's warmly comic nurturing of the action. Unfortunately, he's leading his team in largely unmapped terrain thanks to the meandering script, and "The Little Teachers" ultimately grades as a minor disappointment despite atmospheric lensing from cinematographer Giuseppe Lanci. Indicative of the narrative's atonality, composer Dario Lucantoni's delightfully bouncy score rings true when the film is smiling at the boys' idealism but is intrusively upbeat during the battle sequences.
As the self-styled leader of the pack, Accorsi (with Stallone-like forehead and jaw) is a solid lead and well epitomizes the ambivalence of young men whose rhetoric outflanks their bravery.
THE LITTLE TEACHERS
Cecchi Gori Group
Producers: Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Rita Cecchi Gori
Director: Daniele Luchetti
Screenwriters: Daniele Luchetti, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli, Domenico Starnone
Director of photography: Giuseppe Lanci
Editor: Patrizio Marone
Music: Dario Lucantoni
Color/stereo
Cast:
Gigi: Stefano Accorsi
Simonetta: Stefania Montorsi
Nello: Manuel Donato
Running time -- 122 minutes
No MPAA rating...
"The Little Teachers", the opening-night offering at the 10th annual Nortel Palm Springs International Film Festival, met with the polite applause one expects from a gala crowd that is not exactly bowled over but wants to be appreciative nonetheless. Domestic distribution prospects look dim, unlike other Palm Springs opening-nighters such as "Cinema Paradiso" and "Enchanted April".
In this warm look at idealistic young men, director Daniele Luchetti's surest grasp is with the inherent comic aspects of a group of fresh-faced college boys deciding to take up arms and liberate Italy before Gen. Patton and his British counterparts roll into town. The group is led by square-jawed Gigi (Stefano Accorsi), who fancies the romantic aspects of going off to war, especially when the women wave their handkerchiefs and bat their eyes. The story strikes best in its droll sensibility as the filmmakers gently lampoon the idealism of the young, self-declared soldiers. Their idea of boot camp is not training for the rigors of hand-to-hand combat but debating the pros and cons of fascism and formulating intellectual constructs to justify their taking up arms.
These early preparation scenes are quite funny, a credit to the squadron of screenwriters (Luchetti, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli, Domenico Starnone), but like the gaggle of schoolboy soldiers, the scripting seems a participatory democracy so unfocused and lacking in thematic substructure that the story digresses to a mountain-trek, travelogue level. In short, the narrative seems impaired by the same drawback the boy soldiers have -- no particular plan or focus. After a while, speechmaking by the scholarly soldiers, often callow and simplistic, wears thin, even in its comic dimensions.
In this post-"Saving Private Ryan" age, the battle scenes seem woefully stylized and, hence, false. Still, there's much to praise, especially Luchetti's warmly comic nurturing of the action. Unfortunately, he's leading his team in largely unmapped terrain thanks to the meandering script, and "The Little Teachers" ultimately grades as a minor disappointment despite atmospheric lensing from cinematographer Giuseppe Lanci. Indicative of the narrative's atonality, composer Dario Lucantoni's delightfully bouncy score rings true when the film is smiling at the boys' idealism but is intrusively upbeat during the battle sequences.
As the self-styled leader of the pack, Accorsi (with Stallone-like forehead and jaw) is a solid lead and well epitomizes the ambivalence of young men whose rhetoric outflanks their bravery.
THE LITTLE TEACHERS
Cecchi Gori Group
Producers: Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Rita Cecchi Gori
Director: Daniele Luchetti
Screenwriters: Daniele Luchetti, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli, Domenico Starnone
Director of photography: Giuseppe Lanci
Editor: Patrizio Marone
Music: Dario Lucantoni
Color/stereo
Cast:
Gigi: Stefano Accorsi
Simonetta: Stefania Montorsi
Nello: Manuel Donato
Running time -- 122 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/11/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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