Few years back, I was reading a review by an Indian critic and he was lamenting the immaturity of the Indian audience and how they respond to the silly song and dance routines of Hindi movies. He gave examples of great directors abroad – Fellini, Kurosawa, Vittorio De Sica, Bergman – and wondered if our Indian audience would ever be mature enough to appreciate movies by these stalwarts.
I don’t know if the tradition of dissing Hindi movies by comparing them to movies of Kurosawa and others still exists. It should not because of one simple reason – the internet. It is now evident for anyone who cares to see that all these countries also produce mass entertaining movies across all genres. A cursory search for Kung-fu movies on Youtube would find numerous Japanese action flicks.
Similarly, the genre of Italian movies does not mean only Fellini, De Sica and Antonioni. Italians love good comedies. Welcome Mr President (Benvenuto Presidente) is one such delightful comedy. The plot is simple. If you open an Italian newspaper any time, chances are you will find news about parties from the Left, Right and Centre fighting. Same thing happens in the movie. The parties need to choose the president of Italy unanimously. Tired of not reaching consensus, they each vote for Giuseppe Garibaldi who was an Italian General and freedom fighter in the nineteenth century. Now that the name has been chosen, they have no option to find a man who is called Giuseppe Garibaldi and convince him to resign. Giuseppe ‘Peppino’ Garibaldi (Claudio Bisio) happens to be a librarian in a small town in Piedmont (Piemonte) who has just refused the post of the President of the local fishing club because it is ‘too much responsibility and paperwork.’ What follows is somewhat predictable yet thoroughly entertaining twists that ensue when a common man becomes the highest ruler of a country.
Not sure why but comedies are always treated like step-children by the critics. There is an unwritten rule that if people enjoy themselves while watching a movie, it cannot be a work of great value. In fact, good comedies are as difficult to make as any serious work of art. Welcome Mr President has humour in various forms. There is play of words, physical comedy, situational comedy and farcical twists involving the supporting characters of Janis Clementi (Kasia Smutniak), Morelli (Remo Girone) and others. I literally guffawed when I saw the famous dialogue of Galileo Galilei “eppur si muove (and yet it moves)” being used in a situation where it has a double meaning.
I watch movies for many reasons and some of them have nothing to do with the plot or the genre of the movie. I love watching any country through the eyes of the directors and cinematographers who were born there. This was after I watched series of Hollywood directors using locations in Europe as a tourist would. For instance, in a well known Hollywood movie, the CIA official calls an Italian asset. We see the Italian asset riding a Vespa Scooter with the Colosseum in background. This is just lazy filmmaking. Imagine how you would feel if every scene in USA was shown with the HOLLYWOOD logo or Disneyland in background. Or every shot in Canada near the Niagara Falls. As in real estate, what matters very much in movies is “location, location, location.”
When the movie is shot by a local director/cinematographer you see the back streets and hidden alleys that only a local person would know. Most of the movie is shot in Piedmont and Turin (Torino). Here you see the Italy that is rarely seen – farmers in rural Italy and small towns with simple minded folks. This is similar to going to a small town in a new country and observing the locals instead of joining the package tour that shows you 35 tourist locations in two days.
Welcome Mr President made me do something that we rarely do these days although we say we do it every two minutes – LOL or Laugh Out Loud.
Welcome Mr President is streaming on Netflix.
