Ferzan Ozpetek’s Mine Viganti isn’t the first Italian movie I’ve seen that deals with attitudes towards homosexuality in Italy and I’m not even sure it’s the best. Ozpetek himself made” Le Fate Ignoranti ” (His Secret Life), a story of a woman who finds out that her husband was gay and living a double life when he suddenly dies. In the award winning “La Bestia Nel Cuore
” ( Don’t Tell ) there’s a very sweet side story about a lesbian couple. In “Il Più Bel Giorno Della Mia Vita” (The Best Day of My Life
) Luigi Lo Cascio plays a family’s gay uncle and in “Manuale D’Amore 2 ” 
a gay couple decides to marry. All deal with homosexuality in sensitive, supportive ways and despite new reports of homophobia in Italy, they demonstrate to me that at least the Italian film industry wants out of the closet.
Here in the United States we’ve been out for a long time and we have little patience for others who aren’t. I’m not saying we should; I’m just saying that it’s not constructive to dismiss a culture that is clearly making an effort, even if we think that not enough progress has been made. I asked my husband, Brian, who watched Mine Vaganti with me, what he thought and he described it in one word: dated. I agree that if it it had been made by Americans it would have been considered extremely dated but I think that we have to put the story in another context – an Italian one – and give it a break. Right off the bat you have to give the handsome, heterosexual heartthrob, Riccardo Scamarcio a lot of credit for giving such a convincing performance as Tommaso, a gay man in love. And then you have to remember that Mine Vaganti is not just about homosexuality, it’s about Italy in transition.
Tommaso’s story is wrapped inside his Grandmother’s story and this is what takes Mine Vaganti far beyond silly sitcom level of gay storytelling. Ozpetek could have done a couple of things better – he could have made Tomasso’s friends seem less like cartoon characters. He didn’t need to take out all of the stereotypes, but he could have made them a little less heavy handed. I would change a couple of things but here’s what I wouldn’t change – the parallels he made with Tommaso’s struggle and his grandmother’s. Both of them have been living in the shadow of a family who doesn’t really want to know who they are. Both long to live the life they felt destined to live, but have been denied because of the traditions and mores in the Italian culture. Of everyone in the family, the Nonna sees what is going on better than anyone, and what she does to herself at the end of the movie, she does for Tommaso. Cutting her own losses is a cry for help for the rest of her family.
Mine Vaganti is warm, sweet, and at times very funny. Antonio,the family’s patriarch, who has just disowned another son for coming out, mistakes Tommaso’s gay friends and lover for macho frat boys. He announces loudly at the cafe that everybody had better lock up their daughters – there are some manly men in town! The rest of Tomasso’s famly is a likable, eccentric lot with problems of their own.
I loved Mine Vaganti, but I’m not sure that we who are not Italian can completey appreciate what it is trying to say. An Italian friend once told us, “You Americans take freedom for granted. We still feel like we have to pay someone off for it, or we just give up and do what’s expected of us.” I don”t know to what extent, but I think there is some truth there. And that’s why I don’t want to rewrite this movie. Italy may be coming from a different place but it’s going in the right direction.
It’s won a ton of awards and is playing at film festivals so even though Mine Vaganti isn’t available in the US yet, it will be. Watch for it – it’s a winner.
I Love Italian Everything 