GOOD MORNING, BABYLON

Italy, 1987, 113 minutes, Colour.
Vincent Spano, Greta Scacchi, Joaquim de Alameida, Charles Dance, Omero Antonutti.
Directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.

Good Morning, Babylon is a glowing memoir - tinged with sadness and regrets. Lovers of Italian cinema will appreciate this memoir of a stonemason family in Tuscany who restore cathedrals. However, with the company going into bankruptcy, the two youngest sons emigrate to the United States and find themselves in Hollywood 1915, eventually working for master cinema innovator, director D.W. Griffith (portrayed by Charles Dance). They make the six elephants for the Babylonian sequences of his classic, Intolerance.

The film was written and directed by the Taviani brothers (Padre Padrone, Night of the Shooting Stars, Kaows). They bathe their story in a golden glow, memories, nostalgia, innocence. The re-creation of Griffith's Hollywood is a fascinating delight. However, the film returns to Italy and a First World War setting, Italianate and strained - and rather grim and sad. The two sons are played by American Vincent Spano and Joachim de Almeida. Olmero Antonutti portrays the father (a regular in the Tavianis' films). Greta Scacchi also appears as the wife of one of the brothers.

The film was made in English - broadening the horizons of the Taviani brothers, who made masterpieces locally - and with a social critique point of view, touched with Marxist philosophy.

1. Entertaining, interesting film? A portrait of the history of Hollywood cinema - from an Italian perspective? Cinema, history, nostalgia? Italian life and 20th century changes?

2. The work of the Tavianis, their perspectives on history, politics, cinema? Their feeling and sense of humanity? The quality of their film made in English?

3. The Italian settings and their beauty, Tuscany, the Church of Miracles? The family life? The sea? The contrast with the United States and the west coast? The train, California? The portrait of Los Angeles and Hollywood at the beginning of the century, the houses, the trams, the streets, the studios, the cinemas, the sets? The musical score and themes?

4. The tone of the film: to entertain, the pleasure of a cinema experience about cinema and building, the light and sweetness, innocence? The nostalgia for a past world? A world which has changed? Italian patriarchy, the significance and beauty of cathedrals, their holiness, the sacred? The transition to movies and cinemas as temples of the 20th century? The Italian migrants, their humiliation and achievement? The outbreak of World War One and its cutting across Italian and American relationships? The heritage of World War One?

5. The cathedral, the completion, the ceremony of the unveiling, religious traditions and beauty? The family, the father, the two brothers? The father and his patriarchal rule? Jealousies amongst the sons? The meal and the resignation? The smashing of the cake? The men and their anger, the fight? The patriarch and his handling of the times, plans?

6. The portrait of the father, his presence and character, a man of his times? His work, achievement and artistry? His two boys, their departure, giving them the blessing? The advice to say "Good morning" across the waters? The psychic connection? His eventual going to Hollywood, his price, the meeting with D.W. Griffith, the dropping of the stick and his bending? The meal, the denunciation, ninety years? Griffith's speech? The importance of the father in the family life, blessing, the heritage to his sons? Patterns for their lives?

7. The sons going to the United States, the ship and the slogan, on the boat, meals, the rolling of the boat? The porthole - and memories? Going to work, the pigs, the vultures? Getting the train, to Los Angeles, meeting the Italians? To San Francisco? Their work, achievement and pride?

8. D.W. Griffith and his being in San Francisco, the screening of the Italian film `Cabiria'? The telegram? His decision to hire the Italians, his office? From shoelaces, to the ferry - to Hollywood? In the woods, the chivalry? The young men and the tram, meeting the girls? The pretence about themselves, their being found out and ousted?

9. The job, the birds, sleep? The humiliation - the symbols and the vision, the mystical experience? The light of the sun for the ballet? The destruction of the elephant? The clashes, the rebuilding of the elephant? The rain, completion, the finished product being photographed? The fight and jail?

10. The portrait of the girls, the encounter with the young men, the tram? The poetry and the reading, the quote? The mountain? Coming to see them, not going? The falling in love, the sexual encounters? The elephant, the love story - and the story of the slashing? The achievement of the men - and the girls marrying the young men? Joy and hope?

11. Being employed, Intolerance? The producer and his manner, ordering people around? The premiere of the film? The war demonstration? The speeches, the arrival of their father, Griffith? The young men and their settling in America? The wives and their pregnancies? Birth and death?

12. The portrait of the women, their hopes in Hollywood, marrying the brothers, settling down as wives and mothers? Pregnancy, birth and the tragedy of death? The brothers and their clashing, their breaking of their friendship? The resentments? The cymbals?

13. Edna and Mabel, their beauty, work as extras, hopes, love for poetry, the significance of the elephant? The significance of their lives?

14. The portrait of their friend - the Venetian lady? Griffith and his style, the work on Cabiria, the telegram, hiring people, the trolley, seeing the elephants and his delight in them, employing the brothers, the filming of Intolerance, the dinner and the speech, the premiere, his reputation and the tribute? The glimpses of his wife?

15. The portrait of the officials, their prejudice?

16. The picture of Hollywood, the beginning of feature film-making, the attention to detail, the building of sets, film-making and techniques?

17. The return to Italy? The war, the change in attitudes? Each brother on each side? The symbolic fight? The melodramatic presentation of the war? The fight, the brothers being wounded, the reconciliation, the mutual photographing, their deaths? The end of an old world? The beginning of a new?