I Love Italian Everything

What went wrong with this movie?

News from the Film World: An award-winning, artistic director ( Emidio Greco ) takes an interesting plot and two brilliant actors and makes a movie that is – no way else to put this – a mess.

In Notizie degli Scavi, a developmentally challenged  (I’m thinking Aspergers?) guy that everybody calls “the professor” works in a whore house running errands and cleaning up after the prostitutes, dodging their put downs and worrying that he’s going to be kicked out. When a former employee calls him with a request, he agrees because that’s his lot in life; running people’s errands and doing things that need to be done.

The former employee, Lea, wants him to visit a girl nicknamed “La Marchese” in the hospital, a girl that’s just shot herself because Lea dumped her. Used to taking orders, the professor does it, and it takes him to while to realize that the daily hospital visits he’s making are not errands, but acts of friendship. Their unlikely relationship is very sweet and at a certain level is emotionally rewarding.

Sounds like it might be OK; right? It should have been, but it’s really not, and I’m still trying to figure out why. Giuseppe Battiston is so darned talented and I immediately ached for him as the poor, friendless soul. His life, sleeping on his cot in the kitchen and bumming cigarettes from everybody was compelling and promised something interesting, and I liked the idea of his friendship with the equally friendless young woman. But the dialogue was awkward, the pace too slow, and the soundtrack oddly like something that might have better served a Tuscan travelogue.

And I take no joy in saying this, but Ambra Angiolini, who played La Marchese, is just not a very good actress. She’s beautiful, but she’s a one trick pony with a weird, fake laugh. I’ve never been a fan.

I’ll go to see anything with Battiston and he truly is one of Italy’s best actors, but despite a fine performance he just couldn’t save Notizie degli Scavi.

It was recently released on DVD in Italy but you’ll need a region free or region 2 DVD player for this one. It’s subtitled in English, Italian for the hard of hearing, and French.