Good Morning Babylon (1987)

Although I had seen this film previously, I remembered little about it apart from an idyllic middle section which I recalled as enchanting.  Unfortunately while it indeed does retain some memorable sequences, I can't really say that I was overly taken with this second go.  It was the first English language movie from the Italian Taviani brothers, although the action was bookended by Italian-speaking sequences, but it didn't really work since most of the actors apart from native English-speakers Vincent Spano, Greta Scacchi, and Charles Dance -- playing the genteel Southern showman D.W. Griffiths -- seemed more than a little uncomfortable with their dialogue.  It also didn't help that the story which focused on the early days of Hollywood was filmed exclusively at Cinecitta and on location in Pisa.

None of this would matter enormously if the directors' fantasy about moviemaking worked, but the execution was unnecessarily convoluted.  The film opens in Italy with the seven sons of a master craftsman completing the restoration of a basilica only to be told by their father that he is winding up the business.  The two youngest and most gifted sons set off to make their fortune in America with the intention of returning to Italy to reinstate the family firm.  They have little joy finding work which utilises their talents until they meet up with a work force building the Italian pavilion at the San Francisco Expo.  Griffith is taken with the skill of the architect's vision and wants to use him to design the sets for his long-cherished project "Intolerance".  However the team leaders have returned to Italy and the two brothers can not get past the (for want of a better word) intolerance of the production manager and can only find menial work at the studio.  It is only after they construct a huge papier mache elephant in the forest (this was the so-called enchanting bit that I recalled) that they finally get their big break -- despite their creation having been destoyed by the aforesaid manager -- and are taken on by Griffith to help him realise his dream film set.

So far so good, but there is not enough focus on the mocked-up Hollywood scene.  The directors are trying to make the point that cinema can create its own monuments which are as concrete and long-lasting as those of a master painter or sculptor which would be fine if we hadn't already lost a big chunk of early films.  The "Intolerance" premier is the high point of this film, but it unfortunately then degenerates into melodrama with the death of one brother's wife in childbirth and some final scenes set in Italy during the Great War where the two estranged and wounded brothers, each fighting for a different army, finally reconcile.  SPOILER ALERT:  That they record their last moments on newsreel footage as a legacy to their sons is taking the directors' take on the power of film just a wee bit too far.

Tags: Good Morning Babylon, Taviani Brothers, early cinema