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Moretti as a Postmodern Ironist in Mazierska and Rascaroli’s The Cinema of Nanni Moretti

2005; Wayne State University Press; Volume: 46; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

1559-7989

Abele Longo,

Italian Literature and Culture

Moretti as a Postmodern Ironist in Mazierska and Rascaroli's The Cinema of Nanni Moretti Ewa Mazierska and Laura Rascaroli, The Cinema of Nanni Moretti; Dreams and Diaries (London: Wallflower Press, 2004). Ewa Mazierska and Laura Rascaroli's The Cinema of Nanni Moretti: Dreams and Diaries, a new addition to the Wallflower Press Directors' Cuts series, introduces Moretti to English-speaking readers and at the same time offers an original insight into an oeuvre whose main preoccupations have not often been fully grasped in Italy. The thematic approach helps the authors' analysis, which encompasses sociological, political, and psychoanalytical perspectives. The choice of providing film synopses in the appendix is highly effective in rendering the flow of the discussion more smooth and engaging. The book is divided into four chapters. The first chapter looks at the autobiographical element of Moretti's films, an element that has often led Italian critics into mistaken readings of Moretti's alter egos, which many tend to see as mere reflections of Moretti's persona. The very use of in the arts is placed under scrutiny and leads to the conclusion that pure autobiography is not possible. Even Cam diario / Dear Diary (Italy, 1994) and Aprile (Italy, 1998), in which Moretti plays himself using extracts from his personal video diaries, should be seen as narrative and stylistic means for the creation of a fictional autobiography. The second chapter deals with the influence of family in Italian life and how the concept of masculinity has changed. Mazierska and Rascaroli highlight how the family simultaneously creates a sense of rejection and attraction in Moretti films where there is a constant search for the perfect family, and how typical Italian family issues are represented in his films, from the frequently unhealthy relationship between mothers and sons to the regressive aspect of the child/parent relationship. The third chapter looks instead at what the authors define as existential irony in Moretti. They argue for an understanding of him as a postmodern modeled on Kierkegaard's concept of irony. Especially after Dear Diary, Moretti seems to have acquired a certain consciousness of the possibility of a way out without losing his ability to see life's contradictions or removing its tragic quality-an aspect central to Moretti's films, which are often misguidedly labeled comedies. In the last chapter Italian politics, and more specifically the crisis of the left in Italy, are seen through Moretti's films and his experience as a political activist. The authors highlight how Moretti's views differ from traditional left-wing beliefs and how can be seen as a ironist in Richard Rorty's sense of the term; liberal because in his films he incessantly advocates the liberal cause, by attracting attention to the suffering of individuals in our society, and an because he constantly addresses the contingency of language, community and conscience. …