Not In My Back Yard, applied to Italian cinema, brings back the attitude it gives
time a good part of film criticism has had towards a certain type of productions. The expression
it indicates that sense of differentness, of strangers, of something else that does not belong to us but that usually happens next to us.
We are referring to the "cinepanettoni", to that long series of films, now more than twenty years old
which usually come out during the Christmas period and which have always enjoyed great success with the public.
La review of the week is dedicated to Super Vacanze di Natale, directed by Paolo Ruffini, which has only been in theaters for a few days. It is a possible synthesis, a probable "better than", a selection of fior da fiore from a saga that began way back in 1983 with Christmas Holidays by Carlo Vanzina, inspired by Winter Holidays from 1959 with Vittorio De Sica and Alberto Deaf.
Since then all the titles that have followed have achieved simultaneously a series of record receipts together with scathing reviews. Not so different from what happened in other moments, even with illustrious precedents, in veins of equal success (we mention one for all, that of Fantozzi). Not surprisingly, this film begins the collage with a tribute to the great Albertone, who appears in one of the Christmas holidays of 1991, with the well-known gag "let's bring these gentlemen tripe".
There are, almost all the Italian comedians to represent a nice roundup of characters who have nonetheless marked the history of contemporary Italian cinema.
In the same way that Gomorra narrates, photographs, a certain type of organized crime but not all of it and not in the same place, in the same way this kind of film, and today's film in particular, narrates a part of the country, ours, in the its transformation, in its evolution towards widespread and consolidated lifestyles, languages and behaviors over the last thirty years. All the beautiful (little) and all the ugly (a lot) as well as all the good (???) and all the bad (!!!) that surrounds us, that is around us, close, so close that it is easy not to see .
Super Vacanze di Natale is a synthesis, a flashback in 85 not so comical minutes, of all that part of Italy that has recognized itself in the degradation of expressions and relationships, in turning into the vulgar what even the country is capable of. This synthesis, for this film, leaves out a good part of the complexity, beauty and richness that still exists, it is real and is also told in cinema with other scripts, with other cameras.
This is not the place to write about the social and cultural, as well as political, nature of the Italians (this film mentions it), however we cannot forget how this kind of representation, of visualization that the big screen operates, is nothing more than a kind of "family photo".
It tells of an episode that happened to Ettore Petrolini: during one of his theatrical performances a spectator begins to disturb. At one point, the great actor interrupts and addresses him: "You see, I don't have it with you for disturbing me, but with those who sit next to you and don't throw you downstairs".
In the same way, one could say of this kind of film: it is difficult to blame those who make them, but it would be appropriate (necessary?) to blame those who are the primary source of inspiration, of nourishment, of heavy jokes, of images that are as sarcastic as they are vulgar and grette.
Nothing new for this Super Christmas holiday either, both in terms of content and in the form in which it is proposed for this winter film season. The real theme for reflection, perhaps, is that even this trend runs the risk of drying up to make room, perhaps, even for something worse.
Let's take up a concept contained in the latest CENSIS Report on the state of health of our country: "... we have witnessed the affirmation of media consumption and information schedules all played on individual presence and representation, with an often vulgarized language...".
You may not like this kind of film, like many parts of the story that concern and interest us, but it is still our story and the characters that, albeit in the form of a caricature, are represented are not very different from those we see every day, not just at Christmas. You may not like it but it may be useful to know.
