barmar@think (Barry Margolin) (11/09/90)
THE ICICLE THIEF
A film review by Barry Margolin
Copyright 1990 Barry Margolin
Over the weekend I saw the Italian film THE ICICLE THIEF. I'm
surprised that I haven't seen any mention of it on the net (unless it
was all during my vacation a couple of weeks ago). I'm cross-posting to
rec.arts.tv because TV is part of the subject matter of the movie.
THE ICICLE THIEF is a wonderful satire and spoof. It's a satire of
the butchering that is done to films in order to show them on TV, using
the "film within a film" technique and turning it inside-out. The inner
film is a drama about a family after WWII, in turmoil because the father
can't find work. The outer film is about activities at the TV studio
broadcasting the film, preceded by a review and interview with the
director (the outer director, playing himself); part of the outer film
also takes place in the living room of a family watching the movie (a
must-see for Lego lovers -- could someone tell me what the kid built).
Since the movie is being shown on a commercial TV station, it is
periodically interrupted by commercials. Things get strange, though,
when one of the children in the inner movie starts humming one of the
jingles and an actress from one of the commercials shows up in the
movie. After this, things get *very* weird, but I won't say any more
since I promised only minor spoilers.
This is definitely one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long
time. The subtitling was done very well, I hardly ever had trouble
reading the dialogue.
--
Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp.
barmar@think.com
{uunet,harvard}!think!barmarstef@zweig.exodus (Stephane Payrard) (11/21/90)
THE ICICLE THIEF
A film review by Stephane Payrard
Copyright 1990 Stephane Payrard
[Moderator's note: This arrived in French. There seems to be a trend
here. I am not up translating this, so in French it runs. Spelling,
punctuation, and word choice are exactly as I received them.]
Allez voir THE ICYCLE THIEF, un film clin d'oeil qui vous donne la
joie au coeur. Le rouleau compresseur americain et le regne des films
techniquement parfaits mais completement impersonnels laisse
heureusement place a quelques films qui parlent au coeur.
L'histoire: Un realisateur a fait un film miserabiliste en noir et
blanc; ce film est triste a tirer des larmes a une pierre: un chomeur
trouve enfin du travail, mais commet un larcin et est renvoye; il est
envoye en prison; sa femme doit se prostituer pour vivre et les enfants
sont envoyes a l'orphelinat. Le realisateur est invite a l'occasion du
passage de son film a la tele. Horreur! celui-ci est tronconne' par la
publicite; Mais par un facetieux phenomene spatio-temporel, un des
mannequins d'une pub echoue dans le film et va le perturber. Imaginez
un charmant et souriant mannequin en deshabille' plonge' dans les
problemes d'une famille de l'Italie puritaine d'avant guerre... Le
realisateur furibard decide alors de rentrer en scene pour remettre de
l'ordre dans son film...
Que cette trame du scenario ne vous fasse pas penser a une resucee
des imbroglios spatio-temporels d'un "retour vers le futur." Au lieu
d'un morveux desoeuvre' et gave de pop-corn et d'un Geo Trouvetout
carrement senile, les personnages d' "Icycle thief" sont attachants et
sympathiques. Le realisateur se peint lui-meme comme un lunatique mal a
l'aise d'un le monde moderne et clinquant d'un studio tele, et
completement depasse par les personnages qu'il a engendres; dont le
heros joue' aussi par lui-meme . Qd le mannequin passe du monde
artificiel a la "realite" du film noir et blanc, il sait laisser la
vedette a nos heros et est charmant de discretion et de poesie. Ce
n'est pas parce qu'on vient du futur et des US qu'on est en droit de
refaire le monde!
Je ne sais pas si le film se donne en France et sous quel titre.
Pour le nombreux lectorat de la Silicon Valley: ce film se donnait
il y a qq semaines ds un cinema a Palo Alto; peut-etre se donne-t-il
encore?
Dans un tout autre registre, je viens de voir un autre chef
d'oeuvre. "Journal d'une femme de chambre" est un vieux film de Bunuel,
avec un jeune Piccoli meconnaissable en cul terreux veule a souhait et
une Jeanne Moreau en domestique machiavelique. Alors que notre
realisateur italien (dont j'ignore jusqu'au nom) aime avec tendresse
jusqu'aux defauts de ses personnages, Bunuel jette un regard glacial sur
les siens. Le vieux pere, un fetichiste qui collectionne bottines et
images pieuses a connotations erotiques se complait a caresser les
mollets de ses bonnes a qui il leur demande de lui faire la lecture.
Mais ces petites manies sont bien innocentes comparees aux jeux de
pouvoirs sordides des autres personnages. Brr... Sa fille, une
bourgeoise possessive et frigide se refuse a son mari (Piccoli) qui
ecume le voisinage et se rattrape sur les bonnes, mais il aura affaire a
forte partie avec Jeanne Moreau en domestique. Dns cette hierarchie de
domination, les sous-fifres exploitent lamentablement les faibles des
faibles, innocent ou enfant.
Le dialogue, par Jean-Claude Carriere et Luis Bunuel, est assez
corosif:
Ainsi la femme, parlant a son mari, lui rappelle que ses dernieres
extravagances lui ont coute 1500 francs. Voila une delicate et humaine
maniere de parler d'une domestique qu'on a fait avorter avant de la
renvoyer.
Cette femme frigide confie l'etat de ses relations maritales et
suggere qu' "il y a peut-etre certaines caresses...," mais le pretre de
conclure que tout est OK "tant que vous n'y prenez pas de plaisir,"
"pour sur" repond-elle. Elle se rattrape en etant une sorte de tyran
pour sa maisonnee.
Tjs pour le lectorat de la Silicon valley: vous pouvez trouver
cette video (en asssez mauvais etat) dans la rachitique section "foreign
movies" au Tower Record de San Antonio road.
stef
--
Stephane Payrard -- stef@eng.sun.com -- (415) 336 3726
SMI 2550 Garcia Avenue M/S 10-09 Mountain View CA 94043jgp@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Pellmann) (11/21/90)
THE ICICLE THIEF
A film review by Jim Pellmann
Copyright 1990 Jim Pellmann
One of the most entertaining and imaginative movies I've seen in a
quite a while. This is an Italian comedy which slickly combines a spoof
of television with an homage to the 1949 classic Italian movie THE
BICYCLE THIEF.
There are several stories intertwined:
1) The story of a film director (played by Maurizio Nichetti, who also
wrote
and directed) whose dramatic film called "The Icicle Thief" is being
shown
on television. The film starts out as he arrives at the TV studio to
be
interviewed by a pompous film critic before the film is to be shown.
The
behind-the-scenes antics at the studio are almost slapstick.
2) As the movie starts to be shown on the TV station, we switch to it
and
watch the beginning of what seems to be a typical Italian post-World
War II
tear-jerker about a man (also played by Nichetti) who can't find a
job, his
starstruck wife, their small son who has to work in a gas station to
help support the family, and a baby who's constantly ignored while he
narrowly avoids one disaster after another (a running gag throughout
the
movie).
3) We also see a bickering family at home watching TV as the movie comes
on.
The very pregnant mother watches the movie and gives running
commentary
on it to her husband (also played by Nichetti) who tries to ignore
her,
and to her son who is slowly building a megalopolis out of Lego
blocks
(another running gag).
At the most melodramatic points in the story, the movie is
interrupted for some inane (but hilarious) commercials. As the director
gets more and more outraged at the way the TV station is destroying his
masterwork, the commercials seem to come even faster.
We switch back and forth between the movie, the commercials, the
studio, and the living room, and before we know it, the characters from
the commercials start interacting with the characters from the movie.
It doesn't take long until the characters in the movie are dealing with
all new problems introduced by the commercial, and vice versa. The
director, watches in horror as a whole new plot unfolds before his eyes,
and before long, he too enters the action of the movie to try to get it
back on course.
This is a movie made with intelligence, care, and wit. There are
many clever touches and special effects as the characters interact. Pay
attention to all the details or you'll miss some of the gags. If you're
sick of gangster movies, check this out. Highest recommendation.
Postscript: After this movie played in Italy, the government passed a
law limiting the number of commercial interruptions in movies broadcast
on TV!
--
Jim Pellmann (jpellmann@rational.com)
RATIONAL
Santa Clara, Californiastef@Eng.Sun.COM (Stephane Payrard) (11/30/90)
[Moderator's note: This translation to r.a.m.r. #845 was provided
by Mark Brader and approved by the author. The original can be
requested by sending mail to me (ecl@mtgzy.att.com).]
THE ICICLE THIEF
A film review by Stephane Payrard
Copyright 1990 Stephane Payrard
Translated from French by Mark Brader
(with help from his dictionary and the author)
[Translator's note -- it's fun to do this once in a
while, but perhaps someone else can do the next one?]
Do go and see THE ICICLE THIEF, a film that winks at you and puts
joy in your heart. The American steamroller, and the reign of
technically perfect but completely impersonal films, are now happily set
aside for films that speak to the heart.
Here is the story. A director has made a sad film in black and
white, about miserable people. It would wring tears from a stone: an
unemployed man finds work as last, but is fired for petty theft, and
sent to jail; his wife turns to prostitution for her living, and his
children are sent to an orphanage. The film is played on TV, and the
director is invited for the occasion. Horror! He is shocked by the
publicity; but then, by a funny spatio-temporal phenomenon, one of the
models from an ad ends up *in* the film and begins to disturb it.
Imagine -- a charming, smiling, half-undressed model, plunged into the
problems of a puritanical pre-war Italian family. So the director,
infuriated, decides to enter the scene himself to put his film back in
order!
These plot threads should not make you think at all of the spatio-
temporal imbroglios of BACK TO THE FUTURE. Instead of a snotty brat
full of popcorn and a totally senile, cartoonish inventor, the
characters of THE ICICLE THIEF are sympathetic and charming. The
director paints himself as a daydreamer, ill at ease in the modern
world, blinking at the TV studio, completely surpassed by the characters
he engendered, of whom the hero is played by himself also. When the
model passes from the artificial "real world" into the "reality" of the
black and white film, he knows enough to leave the starring roles to our
heroes; his discretion, like his poetry, is charming. This is not the
American from the future with the right to remake the world!
I don't know if this film has been shown in France, or under what
title. [It turns out to be LE VOLEUR DES SAVONETTES, i.e. The Soap
Thief. Both titles are wordplays on Vittorio de Sica's THE BICYCLE
THIEF in their respective languages. Anyone know the title in Italian?
--trans.]
For the many readers in Silicon Valley: it was showing some weeks
ago at a cinema in Palo Alto; maybe it's still there?
I have also just seen a another masterpiece, in quite a different
vein. DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID is an old [1964--trans.] film of Luis
Bunuel's. The young Michel Piccoli, as a peasant, is unrecognizable;
Jeanne Moreau is the Machiavellian servant. Whereas our Italian
director (whose name I don't remember) loves his characters to a fault,
Bunuel is glacially cold to his. The old father, a fetishist who
collects shoes, and religious icons with erotic connotations, pleases
himself by having the maids read to him, and stroking their legs. But
these little manias are innocent indeed compared to the sordid power
games of the other characters. Brr! His daughter, a frigid and
possessive bourgeoise, refuses herself to her husband (Piccoli) So he
skims the neighborhood, and pursues the maids. But he's bested by the
servant Jeanne Moreau. In this hierarchy of domination, the underlings
lamentably exploit the weaknesses of the weak, both the innocent and the
child.
The dialogue, by Jean-Claude Carriere and Luis Bunuel, is
trenchant. For instance, the woman, talking to her husband, reminds
him that his last little extravagance cost him 1500 francs. This is her
delicate and humane way of speaking of an getting an abortion for one of
the servants before firing her.
This frigid woman confides to a priest about the state of her
marital relations, and suggests that "maybe there are certain
caresses..."; he responds that anything is okay "provided that you don't
enjoy it", to which she says, "For sure." She makes good by becoming a
sort of household tyrant.
Silicon Valley readers can find this one on video (in rather poor
condition) under "foreign movies" at Tower Records, San Antonio Road.