For some reason, I was expecting something better. Glad I saw it on DVD, because this way I was able to fast forward some of the slow moments (and still, even at 4x FF, it seemed slow...). My major complaint is that this was just the usual story of a struggling immigrant family, with nobody to help, you against the mean world that doesn't understand you. Too many clichés. There were some opportunities lost in branching off into other possibly side stories. For example, the scene of the younger brother looking for his brother in the FIAT factory lunch cafeteria, and there he finds an interesting character that attempts to explain where he could find his brother. Or the scene of the political demonstrators with red communist flags that with fluidity surrounded the older brother. TREVICO TORINO was a movie made in the early 70's, but there the movie had more punch. Production-wise, this movie is quite an endeavor, particularly in trying to recreate the style and look of the late 50's and early 60's, when the first southerners (the so-called "terroni") were flooding the sophisticated metropolis that used to be Torino. The daily newspaper of the Italian Comunist Party, "L'Unita'", had a cartoon called Gasparazzo, about a character "metalmeccanico" auto factory worker, and his life in Torino while his wife and three children waited in Sicily. In that cartoon, the story was about life struggles, finding lodging, finding friendship, finding good food, finding a social life, and finding romance. Some of that was portrayed in the movie, but in many cases, excessively so. And a bit of comedy could have been introduced, but no, the movie was just always angry, frustrated. But, hey, life is also about roses, not just bread.
Review of The Way We Laughed
