[Film Review] Padre Padrone (1977) – Cinema Omnivore

[Film Review] Padre Padrone (1977) – Cinema Omnivore

[Film Review] Padre Padrone (1977)

Title: Padre Padrone

Year: 1977

Country: Italy

Language: Italian, Sardinian, German, Latin

Genre: Drama, Biography

Directors/Screenwriters: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani

Based on the book by Gavino Ledda

Music: Egisto Macchi

Cinematography: Mario Masini

Editor: Roberto Perpignani

Cast:

Omero Antonutti

Saverio Marconi

Marcella Michelangeli

Fabrizio Forte

Stanko Molnar

Nanni Moretti

Gavino Ledda

Rating: 7.5/10

Taviani brothers’s seventh feature, PADRE PADRONE (“father” and “master”) is their Palme d’or winner, a paradigm-shifting drama based on the true story of Gavino Ledda, who personally bookends and commences the film by handling a stick to Efisio (Antonutti), his draconian father, who then drags a six-year-old Gavino (Forte) out of his classroom and terrorizes the entire class with his deprecation of elementary education.

Born in 1938, Ledda is a Sardinian shepherd boy, illiterate until in his early 20s, by defying his father, eventually he becomes a linguistic professor and author of the autobiographical novel, published in 1975, on which PADRE PADRONE is based. So the story is an ardent rebellion against patriarchal tyranny, a fight for emancipation from feudal crutches and earning independence in a modern world.

Taviani brothers do not pull punches when it comes to a father meting out corporal punishment to his brood. As a kid, Gavino is constantly subjected to a hiding for his childish unruliness, one sequence with Efisio and an unconscious Gavino postured à la pietà particularly strikes a poignant cord early on. Then such feeling is diluted by the droll scenes of pre-teens unleashing their nascent hormone drive on livestocks (a donkey takes it in obedience, but a flock of hens will definitely cause a bedlam).

A twenty-year-old Gavino (Marconi) first expresses his latent desire for culture in music, a bartered wonky accordion becomes his treasure, then, later, a plan of immigrating to Germany falls through short of Efisio’s consent. What comes to his rescue is the days he spends in the military service, where he can quench his thirst for a world that is beyond his tunnel vision without interference (Nanny Moretti has a small role playing a sympathetic compadre). It turns out he is exceptionally good in electronics, language and music.

The irreconcilable chasm between a curious and intelligent son and his mulish and jerkwater-minded father comes to a head in the climax, and their final showdown is visualized in distinct constraint and asperity, its physical tension and emotional strain is almost unbearable. Throughout the entire film, it becomes a knee-jerking reaction for a father to hit his insubordinate son, also results in one of the lasting images from PADRE PADRONE, with Gavino resting his head on Efisio’s knees, and the latter’s hand raising up aloft.

Taviani brothers’s film earns its import for being a fervid advocate of the then unorthodox rejection of patriarchy and paternalism, the land of Sardinia is poetically and lyrically limned with a superb pastoral pastel. Both Antonutti and Marconi are fine performers, the former actually evokes a remarkable impression of Efisio’s interiority out of his rough-hewn designation. Only Marcella Michelangeli’s role as the matriarch is silenced and relegated to the sideline, it is rather odd she doesn’t try to mediate between the two men like any Italian mother will.

PADRE PADRONE acquits itself as a cogent case of generational clash in the transitional period into modernity, also it captures that redolent ambiguity about one’s homeland, like feces dropping in the goat milk, it nurtures but also inevitably hampers us, Ledda’s personal struggle and breakthrough is a legit inspo to the masses.

referential entries: Taviani brothers’s CAESAR MUST DIE (2012, 7.7/10), ALLONSANFAN (1974, 5.2/10); Victor Erice’s EL SUR (1983, 8.3/10); Ermanno Olmi’s THE TREE OF WOODEN CLOGS (1978, 7.9/10).