Dear Russ Meyer,
I recently discovered that you are a big fan of Bitter Rice/Riso Amaro (1949). Though it was my admiration for Vittorio Gassman rather than your patronage that led me to this neorealist rural-noir. But I could not help but think about your films while watching this. Afterall, the film opens with a shot of female legs and thighs jumping into a water body.
How do I describe the film? A thrilling working class love quadrangle? A rice heist film? Titillating Communist manifesto filled with the thighs of bovine Italian women? The film does not really have a main plot. In fact, it is packed with sub-plots.
It is a film about these earthy and lustful working class people who live purely on instinct. They live cooped up together in a post-war Italy where humans are no better than cattle and have to fight for the right to work. Greed and passion drives them.
Silvana Mangano was sensational as the working class beauty. Her introduction scene where she is dancing is so real - I could smell the odor emanating out of her armpits. I am surprised you did not cast her in one of your films, Russ. She was a damn good actress too. She literally filled the screen with her plump thighs and when she is simply walking and laying around like a wild animal.
Vittorio Gassman looked menacing - the way he uses his tall and wiry body in the fight scenes and towards the end when he is shot dead is unbelievable. You could not ask for two better actors to play a working class couple.
The director sort of foregrounds the beauty and wildness of the working class throughout the film. We are treated to many scenes of scantily clad women working, fighting and bathing in the paddy fields. The film reminded me of John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath". Like in that book, the characters in this novel are also desperately searching for work. And there are so many of them. The film is filled with long shots of the working class woman that are supposed to emphasize their plenitude.
Like I said earlier, the numerous sub-plots and characters do affect the film's tempo. It could have used a really strict editor like you, Russ. It is not a masterpiece. But there is certainly a lot to appreciate.
Best regards, Pimpin.
(7/10)
I recently discovered that you are a big fan of Bitter Rice/Riso Amaro (1949). Though it was my admiration for Vittorio Gassman rather than your patronage that led me to this neorealist rural-noir. But I could not help but think about your films while watching this. Afterall, the film opens with a shot of female legs and thighs jumping into a water body.
How do I describe the film? A thrilling working class love quadrangle? A rice heist film? Titillating Communist manifesto filled with the thighs of bovine Italian women? The film does not really have a main plot. In fact, it is packed with sub-plots.
It is a film about these earthy and lustful working class people who live purely on instinct. They live cooped up together in a post-war Italy where humans are no better than cattle and have to fight for the right to work. Greed and passion drives them.
Silvana Mangano was sensational as the working class beauty. Her introduction scene where she is dancing is so real - I could smell the odor emanating out of her armpits. I am surprised you did not cast her in one of your films, Russ. She was a damn good actress too. She literally filled the screen with her plump thighs and when she is simply walking and laying around like a wild animal.
Vittorio Gassman looked menacing - the way he uses his tall and wiry body in the fight scenes and towards the end when he is shot dead is unbelievable. You could not ask for two better actors to play a working class couple.
The director sort of foregrounds the beauty and wildness of the working class throughout the film. We are treated to many scenes of scantily clad women working, fighting and bathing in the paddy fields. The film reminded me of John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath". Like in that book, the characters in this novel are also desperately searching for work. And there are so many of them. The film is filled with long shots of the working class woman that are supposed to emphasize their plenitude.
Like I said earlier, the numerous sub-plots and characters do affect the film's tempo. It could have used a really strict editor like you, Russ. It is not a masterpiece. But there is certainly a lot to appreciate.
Best regards, Pimpin.
(7/10)