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An
Italian in America
“Can
I tell you straight away that I was on the pont of,
number one: being killed by an American bullet... Two:
being run over by an American truck... Three: getting
married and becoming a successful young man, in the
American sense of the term, obviously... And the list
could go on "ad libitum": the person writing
these lines is a twenty-year-old Sicilian, Tanino, a
mediocre film studies student who ends up in the
United States after an adventurous trip and is telling
his friend and fellow countryman Giuseppe about the
things that happened to him on his way there. The
letter is written from New York, from no less a place
than the room of his idol: a film maker, as down at
heel as the house in which he lives, who has promised
to let him co-direct his next full-length feature
film.
Which won't come about, obviously: but before this,
Tanino will have the chance to gain some experience,
get by in all kinds of circumstances, fall in love and
suffer because of it, as well as have a close shave
with a comical marriage for money: in a word, to grow
and conclude his rites of initiation.
Completed despite many economic difficulties (this
film suffered heavily from the Cecchi Gori financial
crisis), “My name is Tanino” mixes together the
indigenous travel comedy - from Sordi's "An
Italian In America (Un Italiano in America)" to
Scola's "Rocco Papaleo (Permette? Rocco Papaleo)"
- with the American Mark Twain style "bildungsroman".
The result is enjoyable in the first half, crackling
with spot-on jokes and fast moving; then, the
narration becomes dull, the situations predictable and
the film drags towards the usual ending. But in many
scenes the successful touch of Virzì remains: let's
hope to see him at work again soon.
Francesco
Troiano
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My
name is Tanino
by
Paolo Virzì
starring Corrado Fortuna, Frank Crudele and Jessica De
Marco
Links
Official
movie site
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