Three Coins in the Fountain

Ah Rome, there’s something about that timeless city that brings romance to the heart.  For Maria (Maggie McNamara), Anita (Jean Peters) and Frances (Dorothy McGuire), love cannot come so easily. Maria has just arrived to be the secretary replacing Anita at the USDA, where there is an office rule against any of the secretaries dating.  Frances is the secretary to John Frederick Shadwell (Clifton Webb), a successful American novelist.  Being a secretary seems to become a stigma reaching further than the office.  Perhaps an American secretary woman is just missing some sort of Italian class, but it is never fully explained.

To introduce Maria to Rome, the trio first shows her the famed Trevi Fountain.  Maria and Frances each throw a coin in, wishing to stay in Rome for a long while, but Anita holds back since she is headed back to the states soon, telling everyone she is to be married.  The truth is, Anita has no fiance, she just wants a chance to find love back home.  In the office, Maria sees the obvious attraction between Anita and Georgio (Rossano Brazzi) and urges Anita to pursue him.  But that love is forbidden, which makes it all the more delicious.

At an office cocktail party, Maria meets Prince Dino di Cessi (Louis Jourdan), and the other girls warn her that he’s a playboy.  Suddenly there’s a struggle for Maria to keep a respectful reputation or to seek love and happiness with a real prince.  As Maria lets Dino take her to Venice in his private plane and other high class adventures, she realizes she may not be sophisticated enough for him.  So she goes around asking what sort of interests Dino has, everything from his taste in wine, to art and she pretends to be knowledgeable of all his enjoyments.  She pretends to be learning the piccolo.  With Dino thinking they have so much in common, Maria is quickly and dishonestly winning his heart.

For Frances, her heart has grown fond of John for the past fifteen year she’s worked for him, but John has trouble picking up on emotions that don’t come from a page.  He’s a smart but mysterious man who does not realize the strain he can put on her heart.  When he sees Frances all broken up about Anita leaving Georgio and Maria about to lose her prince, John starts to understand the romance that has been building between them and sets out to make everything right.

What this film excels in is capturing the beauty of Italy on film.  The new wide-screen invention of CinemaScope was put to wonderful use, showing panoramic aerial views of both Rome and Venice.  We are taken down to the canals of Venice on a gondola ride, under bridges and looking down secret corridors.  During a picnic scene with Anita and Georgio, we’re shown beautiful green hills with a quaint village below.  And of course, all the picturesque landmarks of Rome are put to good use throughout the film.  Three Coins in the Fountain won the award for best cinematography in a color film.

I would suggest this film for a girls-night-in.  The story is light, cute, fun and charged with girl-talk.  It’s all about getting the guy and having your girlfriends for support.  And enjoying the sights of Italy.  Might I suggest grapes, hummus, wine and/or Greek yogurt as snacks?

“Meeting mama in Italy is the first step to the alter.”

The Godfather

It is nearly impossible today to have no knowledge of The Godfather.  Even if you haven’t seen the film, you have probably seen some parody or heard a line taken from the film.  Surely you’ve heard of an offer you can’t refuse?  My earliest memory of this film would have to be around age seven, with my dad channel surfing one night.  It was an early moment in the film, my dad knew what was about to happen and built it up for me.  There was a man waking up in his bed, then blood, then he discovered the severed head of a horse between the sheets at his feet.  I think my dad explained it in a simple way, “That’s what happens when you don’t listen to The Godfather.”  Something along those lines.  Of course I had nightmares, but those quick scenes my dad would show me of different movies (when my mom wasn’t in the room to discourage it) always peaked my interest and made me come back to see the rest of the movie later.  It was the kind of childhood trauma that has lead me into this intense love of film.

Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is the aging head of the New York mafia family.  On the day of his daughter’s wedding, he is busy listening and granting any reasonable request guests bring to him.  An old Sicilian tradition, and with his long mafia reach he is getting some tough, but still reasonable requests.  Youngest son Michael (Al Pacino) has just returned from WWII and is dating Kay (Diane Keaton), who seems to be the only blond at the wedding.  He tells Kay that he doesn’t want to be part of his family’s business.  After an assassination attempt on Vito, Michael steps up, saves his father’s life from attackers coming to the hospital to finish the job.  Now Michael is in and wants revenge on his father’s attackers.  He does the family proud and goes into hiding in Italy for a while.  When he returns, Vito prepares to hand the family business over to Michael.

All this big talk of mafia hits and offers you can’t refuse may initially turn people away from the film, thinking they couldn’t possibly identify with such immoral characters.  The thing is, the whole story is told from inside the mafia, the family.  When someone hurts one of your own, revenge just becomes justice.  We are not shown any civilian victims at the hands of the family, just equally corrupt people who got what was coming to them.  All the violence we are shown can be justified by mob rules.  Even when the police are involved, they are the crooked cops and we are fine with their demise.  To think of this as the family business and the sons simply helping and protecting their father, brings more sympathy to the characters.  Clever.

In this harsh mafia world, there is little use for women.  They are the domestic creatures expected to prepare food and create sons to one day continue the business.  When Michael takes a wife in Italy, they don’t even speak the same language.  No big deal, right?  My biggest gripe is wondering why Kay married Michael after not hearing from him for over a year.  Perhaps it was just the desperation of being an old maid in the forties.  Fact is, the deeper Michael gets in the business, the further he has to be from Kay.  I’m afraid she’s just going to become that trouble making woman who doesn’t know her place in this mafia family.

Marlon Brando’s Oscar winning performance is unforgettable, and so was his refusal of the award.  To make Vito look more like a bulldog, Brando wore a mouthpiece during filming.  He based the husky-whispering voice off real life mobster Frank Costello.  At the Academy Awards ceremony, he sent Sacheen Littlefeather (birth name Maria Cruz) to refuse the award for him, protesting against Hollywood’s misrepresentation of Native Americans.

Brando’s protest couldn’t change the fact that The Godfather and his role in it are some of the most iconic pieces of American cinema.  Francis Ford Coppola’s direction was masterful and instrumental to winning Best Picture.  The Godfather is one of those movies that everyone should see at some point.  It’s smart, beautiful in it’s subtlety and one of the most well written pieces of American cinema.

“Only don’t tell me you’re innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.”

Il postino (The Postman)

On this small Italian island, not much happens.  Most people are illiterate and become fishermen.  Mario (Massimo Troisi) is a sort of dreamer, wanting more, but not realizing what.  He finds a job as a postman, the island always had a post office, but never seemed to need a carrier before.  His job is to deliver the mail to one person, the exiled poet Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret) from Chile.

I’ve got to say, Mario’s got a sweet job, riding his bike along the Mediterranean coastline with mountains in the background.  I’d take that job for free.

Pablo fascinates some people in the village, especially Mario.  Their relationship starts from awkward business and a simple exchange of mail to a genuine friendship.  Pablo inspires Mario, teaches him what a metaphor is and inspires him to become a poet himself.  Right after Mario meets the beautiful Beatrice (Maria Grazia Cucinotta), who can make Foosball seductive, he asks Pablo to write love poems for him.  I cringed, praying that trite road wouldn’t be taken.  Thankfully, Pablo convinces Mario to write his own beautiful poetry to his love.

An intriguing theme about the dangers of words comes up.  It’s an honor to house a foreign poet but for one of their own to take up the pen seems dangerous.  Mario is the only one who dares to enter the realm of written creativity.  And metaphors, the tricky devils.  When Beatrice’s aunt finds the poems Mario has written for her, she’s immediately worried, questions his motives and how far he’s gotten with her.  She has to go to a priest to have the poems read to her.

It’s a fun question to ask ourselves: how powerful are our words?  Not just those of a Nobel  Prize winning poet, but the struggling novelist, a student, an unemployed blogger, a chronic texter.  Twitter has recently decided to archive all public tweets.  Now your grandkids will be able to timeline our epic weekends.  One of the greatest things about The Postman is how it illustrates the power of the written word.  It can bring fame, peace, exile, war, love, hate or a tsk-tsk from your mom (thank you facebook).

I would like to pick Il postino for ’95.  Braveheart is just too much and overrated.  Sense and Sensibility isn’t daring, just straight up Austen.  Apollo 13 comes first for rocket scientists.  And Babe wonderful, but kids’ stuff.  Il postino has an important intellectual quality that would’ve been compromised had it been made in Hollywood.  I’m so proud of this little Italian film.  Heart, friendship, integrity, intelligence-it’s all here.