Wednesday

The Golden Door (or Nuovomondo, 'New World', in Italian) is an incredible film. I had been delaying seeing it, as usual, since I'd read it reviewed as a 'family saga', and that the director, Emanuele Crialese, was somehow heir to Pasolini. So I was expecting a long, difficult, perhaps symbolist, neorealistic epic. (It seems at least two others were less prepared, and they walked out after twenty minutes.) But it didn't, really, present any difficulties. I pretty much enjoyed it throughout. The visions the main character had of America were brilliant, rather than challenging. The film is not 'hard work' in that sense (perhaps to the regret of Pasolini lovers). It is composed essentially of only three situations: leaving Italy, the boat voyage, and inspection on Ellis Island. Perhaps under microscopic criticism the film might fail - its attempted broad vision undermined - but I'll leave that to someone else. I left the cinema exhilarated. I was uncertain about the use of modern music, it felt a bit cartoon-like, but interestingly that only began when they reached America, and it wasn't as intrusive as, say, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. The song it finishes with was brilliant. I also wasn't sure about the inclusion of the English female character, also leaving Italy for America. We could have done without that complication, which irretrievably struck us away from the attempted realism of the film. Perhaps that was a good thing, though. It's not a family saga at all, but it is excellent.