MovieChat Forums > Mambo Italiano (2003) Discussion > I wanted to like it

I wanted to like it

posted 12 years ago by Violet_Loves_Iliona
6 replies | jump to latest

I heard of this when it first came out, but only came across it a couple of days ago in the weekly section at my videostore, so I eagerly took it home and watched it, but I just didn't think this film was anything special. A couple of the problems were:

1. "To be gay and Italian is the worst thing immaginable" (or something like that), was said several times by both Angelo and his sister, but I find this ridiculous... How about being muslim and gay? Or even Anglo and gay? Straight Anglo men are much more sexually repressed than most (Continental) European men, even the somewhat homophobic ones... When I lived in Italy while studying at University, there were a few culture clashes I experienced, among them the way even totally heterosexual men are towards each other - it's not unusual for straight men to kiss each other hello, to sleep together in the same bed wearing nothing but underwear, and it's not weird for, say, a grandfather and grandson to walk together hand-in-hand when walking home from school, the park, etc.

From an Anglo perpective (I'm Australian, so my background is Anglo), what's the first thing we would think? Seeing an old guy holding a little boy's hand? The first thing that would pop into our head is "paedophile", turning it into something distasteful, and even after learning that there is nothing untoward going on, it would still make most repressed Anglo people uncomfortable to see it or to do it... For the two guys kissing each other hello and goodbye or two guys in bed together? We'd think "gay", or maybe "closet gay", turning it into something sexual in both cases, and once again, something distasteful/negative in the second example. Italians are much freer than we are, and there is still homophobia in Italy (as there is everywhere), but since when are Italians more homophobic or less free than Anglo people? I'd say they're much freer than us, if anything.

2. Given how similar the two languaged are, why would Italian immigrants who have moved to Quebec, a French-speaking country, be speaking English and not French? Come to think of it, they barely spoke any Italian, either. It's especially that the parents didn't speak Italian at least some of the time. With the children, it's more understandable that they don't speak Italian, though it's much less understandable that they wouldn't speak French as their first language (though as I said, it would've been so much easier even for the parents to speak French than for them to speak English).

3. Why were Anglo actors playing the two Italian-Canadian characters? Are there not Italian-Canadian actors in Canada good enough and available to play these roles?

Answer: The only thing I can come up with is that this was a film made by Anglos for an Anglo audience. It's for this reason that it was in English rather than the more natural French, why Anglo actors play Italian roles and why nobody speaks a word of Italian other than one word ("omosessuale" = homosexual, though in those contexts I would have thought they'd say finocchio or something similar), and why it seems to be based on non-existent social norms, stereotypes they seem to have pulled out of the air just for this film.

For all of these reasons, I found this film to be a real disappointment, and I couldn't in good conscience recommend this film to anyone... I know how hard it can be to get a film made and what a labour of love most films are, but this film didn't seem to have any soul whatsoever. If anything, it just felt like bubblegum... and illegitimate, expoitative bubblegum, at that.

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[–] oddity94 11 years ago

The italians speaking english in Montral makes perfect sense. I come from an Italian/Quebec family yet every single one of them speaks english before french. You'll meet more anglo italians than franco italians in Montreal.

[–] Violet_Loves_Iliona 11 years ago

But what about it makes sense? Italian and French are sister languages, so it wouldn't be very hard for an Italian-speaker to learn French, whereas English is a totally different language, with only much less lexicon in common, and a totally different grammatical structure. Add to that the fact that French is the dominant language in Quebec, and it makes no sense to me. I say this as an anglophone who speaks all three languages.

For the above reasons, I just don't understand why Italian immigrants would learn English but not French... It's just baffling to me. :O

Violet

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[–] oddity94 11 years ago

The Montreal area (especially the one the italian community generally lives) isn't exlusively french. And most of them never venture out of the island.

All I know is - I come from an italian family, go to a school where the majority is italian ... and they mostly speak English. It's quite realistic honestly.

French language is dominant in Quebec but not EVERYWHERE. Certain parts of Montreal are overwhelmingly english. Once you get into suburbia and rural towns, it becomes increasingly french, but there are certain towns with large english communities. Also, english is taught in every school, a large part of the population is bilingual to some extent.

[–] Violet_Loves_Iliona 11 years ago

I don't doubt for a moment that what you are saying is true, what you write makes sense for the children of immigrants who are growing up, say, on the west island, surrounded by English-speakers.

What I am genuinely at a loss to understand, though, is why the Italian immigrants (not their children), whose first (and in many cases only) language is Italian, would learn English but not bother with the easier sister language of French, which is the dominant language of Quebec... That's what I was getting at.

Violet

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[–] silvertron 11 years ago

Obviously, you're allowed to be bothered by and dislike movies for whatever reason you like...but this does seem an odd reason to dislike the film. And yes it's certainly aimed at an English-speaking audience--but so what?

[–] coq_rouge-91 11 years ago

Just because the characters doesn't use it between them doesn't mean they don't know how to. If you remember when Pina fist meet Nino at the bar she adress him in French.

Also, though some of the Italian characters are played by anglos, to say Italians had nothing to do with it isn't true either. It was written by an Italian-Canadian immigrant who says his own life inspired it.