Baarìa

Dir: Giuseppe Tornatore

2009

*****

Director Giuseppe Tornatore is probably best remembered for his 1988 masterpiece Cinema Paradiso, although his 1986 debut Il professore (The Professor) is regarded just as masterful. It feels like every film he’s made since is compared to his classic but I’m not sure anything he could ever film would now ever live up to it. The problem with making such an iconic masterpiece so early on in your career. The thing is, nearly every film he’s made since is a masterpiece, with films such as Malena, The Legend of 1900 and Everybody’s Fine regarded as the best films of each year that they were released. I think his 2009 epic Baarìa is also a masterpiece, probably one of the best of the year but still not quite as great as his earlier work. I too am guilty of making the unfair comparison, I can’t help it, Cinema Paradiso is one of the greatest films ever made, even more special to those who adore the art cinema. Much like Cinema Paradiso, Baarìa is an indulgence of Tornatore’s and it is important to know this before sitting down to watch it. It isn’t 100% politically or historically accurate and to be honest, to think so is pretty ridiculous, but it seems to be one of the larger sources of criticism that the film has received. The other is in regard to the killing of a cow. Baarìa recounts life in the Sicilian town of Bagheria (known as Baarìa in Sicilian, a small town close to Palermo where Tornatore was born and raised), from the 1930s to the 1980s, through the eyes of lovers Peppino (Francesco Scianna) and Mannina (Margareth Madè). The introduction to the town begins with a small boy who is asked to run an errand by a group of men who are gambling outside of a bar. One of the men spits on the floor and tells the boy that if he can run down the road and buy the men cigarettes before his spit dries he will give him some money. The boy doesn’t manage and the men, as well as the boy’s friends, laugh at him as he stands exhausted from his run. Peppino’s Sicilian family is then depicted across three generations, from Cicco to his son Peppino to his grandson Pietro. Touching lightly upon the private lives of these characters and their families, the film evokes the loves, dreams and disappointments of an entire community in the province of Palermo over five decades. During the Fascist period, Cicco is a humble shepherd who, however, finds time to pursue his passion for books, epic poems and the great popular romance novels. In the days when people go hungry and during World War II, his son Peppino witnesses injustice by mafiosi and landowners, and becomes a communist. After the war, he meets Mannina and falls in love. Her family opposes the relationship because of his political ideas, but the two insist and get married, and have children. Subplots include one about a living fly locked inside a spinning top, three rocks people try to hit in one throw, a man mutilating himself to avoid having to fight in the war, looting while the U.S. invades Sicily, making clothing from an American parachute, and Peppino's daughter calling her father a fascist for not allowing her to wear a mini-skirt. Running through the film however is the main subplot concerning the history of the Italian left especially the Communist Party of which Peppino is a lifelong member. It charts his fight against injustice and eventual disillusionment in the face of corruption and compromise by his fellow politicians. The film ends with a young Peppino mysteriously visiting Baarìa in the present day and seeing how everything he knows has changed. He begins running but it is unclear whether he is running from it or toward it or if he is trying to run home. As he is running through the towns streets he passes the boy from the very beginning of the film who is running to get cigarettes for the gambling men as seen in the film’s introduction. It is a scene open to interpretation but you’d have to ask Tornatore for its true meaning. It is dream-like in places and unashamedly indulgent but Tornatore is one of the few directors who produces his best work this way. It’s very Italian, it is filmed beautifully and everything in the film is important to the story. Not a single scene is wasted or is unimportant. It is just such a shame that the issue with the cow was such a big deal. The Lega Antivivisezione (an anti-animal cruelty group) condemned the actual on-screen killing of a cow that was visible in the Italian trailer. The animal was killed with an iron punch driven in the skull without any pain-relief and was then seen bleeding to death while people collect and drink its blood. Such a scene could not have been shot in Italy, because of laws against the unethical treatment of animals in media production. That part of the movie was filmed in Tunisia, where there are no such restrictions. Thereafter the ENPA (National Association of Animal Protection) demanded the immediate withdrawal of all copies distributed in theatres "to avoid the exposition of minors to such disgusting and fearful images", as the film is rated for an unrestricted audience. Again according to the ENPA, although the scene was filmed in Tunisia thus bypassing the Italian law, after application to the Minister of Justice, the prosecution can still take place in Italy. In October 2009, the ENPA started an international boycott campaign against the film and an online petition asking to revoke the designation of the movie as Italian entry to the Academy Awards. Responding to these critics, director Giuseppe Tornatore clarified that the location in Tunisia was not intended to bypass Italian regulations, and that the animal was not specifically killed for the film. The scene was filmed in a local slaughterhouse and the killing was one of the many that take place there every day. This particular scene was also cut from the film but by then it was too late, the boycott had a huge effect on cinema ticket sales and Baarìa didn’t become the film it should have.