The Taviani brothers are no more. First, Vittorio died in 2018, and last year Paolo also left us. They leave behind about 20 feature films and a few more short films and collaborations on collective creations. They also wrote most of the scripts together, creating characters who confront history and who sometimes make history, but who are always people in whom viewers can recognize themselves and identify with. This is also the case with the heroes of ‘Good Morning Babilonia‘, the film written and directed by them in 1987, whose story takes place mostly in America at the beginning of the 20th century and which is spoken almost entirely in English. It is a kind of exception in the career of the two brothers, who after several remarkable successes in Italy and Europe (including awards at the Cannes festivals) were trying to broaden their audience by conquering the American public as well. They didn’t really succeed (not commercially, anyway) in this attempt, but the result is still a beautifully written and narrated film, which combines a story of emigration with a spectacular episode in the history of the art of film.
If this film had been made by American directors, we could have categorized it as an American saga. However, the story begins and ends in Italy. Nicola and Andrea are the youngest of the seven Bonnano brothers, descendants of a dynasty of restorers of churches and cathedrals. Their father’s restoration business goes bankrupt and the two brothers decide to go to America to collect money and win it back. Young, beautiful, hardworking and resourceful, they will manage to reach Hollywood after many adventures and trials typical of the difficult path of economic immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century. It is not easy to break into Hollywood either, but a new industry is born here, that of cinema. The seeds of what we know will become the big studios are already here – super-powerful producers, directors with grandiose visions, hundreds of aspiring actors – bold men and beautiful young actresses – dreaming of becoming stars and ready to do almost anything for it. Nicola and Andrea will eventually manage to attract the attention of director D.W. Griffith, using their home-grown craft and art to create an important part (the elephants!) of the sets of the famous film ‘Intolerance’. When the two marry two beautiful aspiring actresses, the film seems headed for a happy ending. However, fate decides otherwise, both in terms of their personal lives and through the outbreak of World War I. Separated, the two brothers will return to Europe and only a tragic ending will reunite them.
I like films that describe the experience of immigration to the ‘land of all possibilities’. Over time, I discovered that among the most interesting films of the genre are those made by non-American directors and screenwriters that describe the story of emigration to America from the immigrants’ perspective. It seems to me that ‘Good Morning Babilonia‘ also falls into this category. The most successful scenes of the film are – in my opinion – those that reconstruct early Hollywood, with dusty streets between orchards, with studios in formation and with characters in whom we recognize the pioneers of the dreams industry. If the two brothers – played by Vincent Spano and Joaquim de Almeida – are fictional characters (perhaps inspired by the biographies of the Taviani brothers themselves), there is a real historical character in the film, that of D.W. Griffith, played by Charles Dance, one of those actors who turn supporting roles into jewels. Dance/Griffith has a monologue in the film that, although a little theatrical, conveys a beautiful idea. Addressing the father of the two brothers, invited to their double wedding, the director compares the films of the century that was beginning to emerge to the Romanesque cathedrals of medieval Italy, paying homage to the anonymous craftsmen who invested talent and effort in their construction. It is an impressive homage to art and one of the reasons why this film has a chance to remain in the memory of viewers.