PADRE PADRONE

Italy, 1977, 101 Minutes, Colour.
Omero Antonutti, Saverio Marconi, Marcella Michelangeli, Fabrizio Forte.
Directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.

Padre Padrone is a film sponsored by Italian radio and television. It was a great success at the Cannes film festival in 1978, winning major prizes and the Jury prize. It is an overwhelming portrait of a peasant boy growing up in the isolation of Sardinia and illiteracy and the cultural and emotional conflicts of emerging from his family and environment into the modern world. It traces the story of Gavino Ledda from a shepherd boy in the hills to military service to study and his becoming a linguist. It is a fine story of human achievement as well as a well documented story of culture and the patterns of life in remote Italy.

1. The overall impact of this film as social comment, plot and biography, entertainment? A combination of these? The prizes that the film won, why merited?

2. The making of the film by Italian television companies? National backing? The impact for an Italian audience, non-Italians? For a television audience? The honesty of Italians in presenting themselves and aspects of society, characters, strengths and difficulties? A portrait of Sardegna?

3. A portrait of post-war Italy? Would Sardegna be special or not? The long traditions and isolation of Sardegna? Its landscapes, isolated towns, separation from the mainland, Italian origins, bonds? A hard way of life? Primitive? Backgrounds of religion, superstition? The hard and violent background? Loneliness? A landscape and a society to be escaped from by the younger generation? Traces of a 19th century world? Sardegna where another world wets the 20th century? How convincingly were these themes presented?

4. The visual impact of Sardegna itself, the town, houses, school, the mountains, the herds, the loneliness? The importance of the sights and especially the sounds of the countryside? How did the Italian Army and training contrast with this world? A visual contrast of old and new worlds?

5. The contribution of the musical score, the traditional melodies and the way these were presented as background, within the plot? The loyalty to the traditional songs? Their satirical use by the young men? The Strauss waltzes and their contribution? The classics and their influence on a young man in Italy, returning to Sardegna and the contrast with local music?

6. Comment on the use of sound in the film. the cries and the whispers, the children and the voicing of their thoughts, the songs and their interweaving, the animals speaking eg. the sheep, the scenes of sexuality and the murmurs, sounds and cries, the chatter and the cries and whispers during the death sequence, on the return to the island? The creative use of sound as giving a deeper sense of what was happening, what people were feeling, the harmony of men and nature etc.?

7. The significance of the title of the film: indication of traditions, the complications of family relationships, the role of father, the role of son? Indication of hard life and hardship?

8. The framework of the real Gavino? His impact as a person, the meaning of his life as he understood it, his autobiography? The introduction of his father and his going into the school? The reprisal of this at the end? The effect of this framework of the father-master? The character of the father as revealed in his seeking his son, his speech to his son, the fear of Gavino and his wetting himself, the teacher and her refusal to let him go, the boys and their reaction to Gavino's leaving, their fears, the significance of their monologues? His return home to his mother and his mother laughing? Her laugh throughout the film? The situating of Gavino in his place, hardship, relationship with father and mother?

9. The first quarter of the film showing his training to be a shepherd? The transition from school and the possibility of learning and using his brains to the isolation of the mountains, the being by himself, conquering his fears, learning nature and experiencing it?

10. The importance of Gavino's leaving his home ? his mother washing him and dressing him, her love and her not wanting him to go yet the traditions of the family? The long road to the mountains? The nature of the advice that he received, learning to hear the various sounds and identifying them ? the way the screenplay did this by making the audience hear and see? His running away and being beaten? The experience with the snake, his father chasing him, hiding from his father, the talking and the thrashing?

11. What was the relationship between father and son as this stage? His sullenness and attitude towards his father, his father's emphasis on using his brain? Why the making of children work so hard? Poverty, survival, tradition? The autobiographical music illustrating this? The other boys being shepherds? The effect of this on a small boy and his growing up, his personality?

12. The emphasis on sexuality ? the boys alone, masturbation, bestiality? The comic showing of sexuality all over the mountainside ? in nature. Gavino's parents, couples and families? The earthy reality of this, the humour,, the use of sounds?

13. The transition of Gavino to the age of twenty? So many years working in the mountains, the focus on the accordion and the young men playing it,, his wanting it and the being awakened to musical sounds ? the music of Strauss in the hills of Sardegna? His following them, trading? His being deceived? Cutting his lip for this father's sake? The joy of experiencing music? The indication of the possibilities for Gavino's life?

14. Illustration of the way of life in the mountains with Sebastiano and his smoking the cigar inside his mouth. his fear of vendetta. the nature of the feud, the false reconciliation and the shearing, the suddenness of his death and its brutality? The irony of his smoking his cigar properly? The significance of death in Sardegna, his being laid out? His will and his wealth? Gavino's father getting the grove for him? The ambitions of each of the family? The irony of the revenge death for helping Gavino? The working of the groves, the seasons, the harsh weather, the failure of the crop, the cold and the drinking of the frozen milk? The significance of the death scene and the sounds and people's reaction?

15. The portrayal of the boys leaving ? the processes the attitudes, the singing.. urinating, defiance? Gavino and his decision? His father's tricking him and the family laughing?

16. The importance of selling the property. the disposition of the money? The effect on the family? How well were the personalities of the family drawn ?mother and father in their middle-age,, the other children and their dependence on the family, Gavino within this context?

17. The change of tone in the film with his going into the Army, the 20th century world, the comments on his dialect? Fear, the cutting of the lip? The amount of learning to be done? Relating with people? Pisa and the tour? The radio and his skill in making it work? His capacity for communication.. study, the scene at the beach his letter? The awakening that the Army education gave him?

18. How had he changed on his return? His quality of study. culture? His slavery for his father. his illness, cold? His decision to study and confront his father? The violence of the two and the ability to kill? The symbolism of the sequence with the radio and his father's destruction of it? His father's incomprehension? His decision not to leave because that would be defeat? The patriarchal system and his decision to confront it? The picture of him within the town?

19. What was the quality of his achievement? His study, degree, study of language? His return and not letting his father win? The finale and the repetition of the beginning and the visualizing of what he had achieved?

20. How particularly Italian was the film in its content and themes? How universal in terms of family, tradition, study, the generations? Patriarchal systems? The status of family, relationships and dependence? The role of fear and control? Destiny, freedom? Achievement and potential? The nature of self-assertion and rebellion? The significance of Gavino's victory and its symbolism of 20th century struggles?