They are the ( clichéd, mind-numbing, sophomoric ) battle of the sexes in two successful Italian comedies – Maschi Contro Femmine (Men vs Women) and Femmine Contro Maschi (Women vs Men) – neither of which are available for US DVD players and neither of which I would particularly recommend. So why am I writing about them? I guess because I just can’t stop thinking about them. What makes something funny is such an enigma, particularly in films from other countries, and the definition of “funny” can be wildly different from one person to the next. I suppose that explains why filmmakers are always making comedies with the lowest common denominator. I guess that’s why so many of them suck and/or are popular at the same time.
I saw Femmine Contro Maschi (women against men) , the second of the two to be released, in the theater when I was in Rome in February . When I wrote about it I compared it to an old American TV show called Love American Style – maybe The Love Boat or Fantasy Island would have been more recognizable references. You know those shows; the ones with vignettes featuring washed-up stars in implausible, tedious and not very funny relationship stories. A couple in Femmine Contro Maschi were mildly amusing, like when one husband got amnesia and the wife decided to “reinvent” him, telling him that he hated soccer and loved piano lessons. In another, a man didn’t want his mother to know that he was divorced so he got his ex-wife and kids together to film fake family vacation videos. Sitcom stuff.
I think that maybe the director of the two movies, Fausto Brizzi, was going for a kind of “Love Actually” rip-off ( I hated that one, too, so take that into consideration). The Maschi/Femmine chronicles, like Love Actually, have stars that aren’t so washed up and deserve better roles, but I guess movie stars like high paying jobs and the chance to make some money can’t be underestimated. Stars like Paola Cortellesi, who won the best actress award for Nessuno mi Può Gudicare and Claudio Bisio, who was so charming in Si Può Fare and Benvenuti al Sud camp it up, and probably had fun doing it, but I just can’t believe that the movies are funny enough to be successful. And I can’t believe that comedies couldn’t be a little smarter and still make money.
I watched Maschi Contro Femmine (Men vs. Women) last night and it was much worse. It has a lesbian and her guy roommate who are after the same (idiotic) bi-sexual girl, a man trying to be faithful to his wife (who has a new baby) while a blond chippy throws herself at him, a woman who finds her husband screwing a beautiful young woman (and he’s definitely not handsome or rich enough for me to believe for 1 second he could actually get) and the one with Cortellessi, about a crunchy young “Green Peace” do-gooder woman that falls in love with her sleazy, playboy neighbor. All. Really. Dumb.
It’s no different here in the US – we churn out stupid comedies like there’s no tomorrow and like there’s no way to do it any differently. But I happen to know that there is. The recent American movies like Bridesmaids and Cedar Rapids, and the Italian Benvenuti al Sud, for example, show that comedies can have substance and still be really silly at the same time. Maybe 99% of comedies aren’t fresh because we don’t demand freshness. Maybe we need to start rejecting the rotten apples and demand better comedies – in all languages.
I Love Italian Everything 