Imagine if a new picture by a world-class director were enthusiastically advertised as an instance of a great artist just slumming; e.g., "Ingmar Bergman--not as thoughtful anymore!" or "Kurosawa, mundane at last!" When CIAO, PROFESSORE! made its American tour courtesy of Miramax
Films--freshly acquired by the Disney corporation--the tagline was: "The least controversial film ever from director Lina Wertmuller!" This tepid slogan didn't do much to lure American audiences to a genuinely entertaining feature; ironically, however, it's entirely accurate. Though not without
its tart moments, CIAO, PROFESSORE! is the oft-acerbic Wertmuller in a kinder, gentler, and crowd-pleasing mode. Marco Sperelli (Paolo Villaggio) is a teacher from the genteel north of Italy, mistakenly assigned to an elementary school in Corzano, a slum neighborhood in the south, near Naples. On
his first day he serves as both teacher and truant officer, because many local parents normally pull their kids out of school to work during the day--that's if they have any control over their offspring in the first place. Furthermore, Sperelli discovers that basic classroom supplies are missing;
they've been sold on the black market by the corrupt janitor.
After forcibly dragging his pupils in (and persuading more than one hard-drinking papa that education can be a good thing), Sperelli gradually earns the respect of the kids, with the exception of Raffaele (Ciro Esposito), a fatherless little hood, already a junior affiliate of the Mafia. The two
become pals only after a riotous night when the boy's mother falls gravely ill; the staid Sperelli cooperates in stealing a car and shaking down a seedy hospital in order to secure proper medical care. Then, just as he seems to be making real progress, the professore gets transferred back to the
north, thanks to a vendetta by the ever-smiling, ever-pregnant principal, who never forgot or forgave an insult he threw at her early in his tenure. Sperelli departs amid warm farewells from the children of Corzano, especially Raffaele.
That the movie's closing theme is Louis Armstrong performing "What a Wonderful World"--a tune already milked to exhaustion in GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM and elsewhere--evidences how baldly CIAO PROFESSORE! wears its heart on its sleeve. The movie was inspired by Io Speriama Che Me Lo Cavo ("Me, Let's
Hope I Make It"), a published book of essays by Neapolitan street kids, with a superimposed stock narrative borrowed from TO SIR WITH LOVE, UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE, and numerous other stories about dedicated, misfit teachers doing their best in squalid school districts. Paolo Villaggio's nicely
restrained central performance as the dogged Sperelli is the anchor that keeps the material from drifting into either gimmickry or mawkishness.
For English-speaking audiences, CIAO PROFESSORE! has the novelty of its setting. The story would hold no surprises whatsoever set in an American ghetto, but Wertmuller offers armchair tourists a soupcon of sociology by exploring the ongoing feud between Sperelli's native northern Italy--long seen
as the placid and prosperous inheritors of the nation's Roman/Renaissance art, literature, and culture--and the earthier south, a region of angry have-nots and reputed haven for organized crime and entrenched corruption. Here the displaced Sperelli is an alien in his own land, and his attempt to
expose a thieving janitor gets him tarred as a "racist." This is the caustic Wertmuller of old. Another bonus for foreign audiences, albeit on not so lofty an intellectual plane, is the subtitled dialogue of the Corzano kids, possibly the most foul-mouthed bunch of youngsters ever to charm the
screen. Hilarious and shocking obscenities pour shamelessly from their mouths as they teach their new teacher the necessary skill of proper Neapolitan cursing, all the better to discipline the absent Raffaele. Trash-talking tykes are neither fresh nor very funny when they spew out verbal pollution
in American movies, but to see the blistering dialogue (all meant quite innocently; it's a faithful reflection of the way such children have been raised to speak) translated in English subtitles is a hoot. Base though that may be, it adds a dose of vinegar to a movie with a soft, sugary center.
(Extreme profanity, substance abuse.) leave a comment
