This movie was an interesting combination of many characters that, as you said, stories were weaved together. Each of the main characters runs into another or is involved with another in some way. There are many examples of this from, the thugs stealing Vitorio's leg and it winding up with Manu, Manu's teacher running into Vitorio at the hospital and trying to help him to Vitorio eventually finding the disgrace that stole his prosthetic leg in the first place. Personally, I believed that Vitorio was Manu's father. I was actually surprised to find out that that was not the case. I was so sure of it. However, I think the movie was better in that way, than if I were to have been correct.
I think that most of the characters were in similar classes, I mean, most of the kids seemed to be in the same position. Vitorio was obviously the worst off, I mean he was a war hero and he did not even have a place to sleep! I suppose you would consider Manu and his grandmother toeing the poverty line, but at least they had a place to live and food to eat. Just by the looks of her home, Joana seemed to be in the middle class. It seemed evident that her former classmate was probably a rich kid his whole life, with plenty of opportunity, seeing as his uncle was in the government and he studied abroad. Also, he just seemed like a snob, he seemed as though he had an aura about him like "I'm above you."
In terms of the comparison between this and La Vie Est Belle, the main similarity was the following of a protagonist with some sort of a struggle, Vitorio and Kuru. Obviously Vitorio's struggles were far worse than Kuru, but Kuru still struggled nonetheless. Another similarity is the complete distance in class levels from the common people to those in the government. The man from the government seemed like he had no idea that all those people had lost limbs due to landmines. Also, Vitorio and Kuru seemed to be real ladies' men. They both pursued multiple women throughout the film. The main difference, to me, is still between Vitorio and Kuru. Kuru had a lofty dream, he was shooting for the stars, he wanted to be a musician. Vitorio just wanted to get a job, and maybe a place to live.
A common theme is basically every movie we have seen would be poverty. There has been unanimously a character or many characters that have been very poor or downtrodden.
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteI like that you liked the film better because it wasn't just a fairy-tale story of a kid finding his father. I agree with you. I wonder, too, about class stereotypes, gender stereotypes, and these characters. They seem very believable, but I also sometimes want the most stereotypical character in a film to be more complex. In this case, it would be the man who returns from the States. Does he have to be such a d***? And why does Joana end up liking him again? Because he "redeems" himself by asking his father for a favor? She's not even happy after this occurs, because of the way it's been done (as a political advertisement), so why does she date this dude?
Just some normal questions. I really like this film.
Spring
Anthony, I also think that Vitorio had to have been Manu's father. The ending was rather open ended, so we could interpret in anyway we choose. There wasn't a definitive answer to maybe leave us guessing about if they are father and son. You hit the nail on the head about the class levels, and it was interesting how everyone ended up having a part in everybody else's life. They were certainly all connected in one way or another.
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