SUMMERTIME
Italy, 1983, 70 minutes, Colour.
Luca Barbareschi, Susi Gilder, Douglas Ferguson, Malcolm Botway.
Directed by Massimo Mazzucco.
Summertime is a pleasant and attractive first film by Italian fashion photographer Mazzucco (pictured). It was made with a small budget over a period of several years. The film was made in collaboration with Luca Barbareschi who plays the hero. After an opening in Los Angeles and Disneyland, the film focuses on New York as seen by a young Italian visitor - some of the sights, the eccentric people, the atmosphere, the underside of New York. There is attraction, there is disappointment?
Isolation and communication are themes. The film has a short running time but is strong in characterisation and feeling. There is an attractive musical score including work by Sate and a variation on Gershwin's Summertime. The film was made in winter time - hence an irony of tone in the film.
1. An effective first feature by a fashion photographer? The quality of colour photography? Editing and pace? Sensitivity to character and eccentricities? The variety of New York location photography? Musical score? Use of songs? The grand finale - 'It Is My Life' with the tongue-in-cheek final comment.
2. The point of view of Mazzucco: an Italian in America, the Italian background, the Italian male? The American female? The colour and Disneyland atmosphere of Los Angeles compared with the sombreness of New York? The strange gallery of characters? Pictured with compassion and understanding? Humour and irony? Mazzucco's fascination with New York as a city, its lifestyle? An Italian perspective?
3. The mood of the opening with the attention to Disneyland and its attractions, Marco and Valerie enjoying themselves? The transition to New York? Marco alone? Exploring New York on his own and feeling lonely, isolated?
4. Marco's arrival by bus and leaving by bus? The audience entering and leaving with him? Sharing his perspective and insight?
5. New York as seen by the audience in winter time: the streets, the buildings, the subway, hotels, the skyscrapers and facades of glass, affluence? The underside with its squalor? Apartments underground etc.? A fair picture of New York?
6. The range of characters Marco encounters: the insurance man with his long spiel and the tracking shot along the street, insurance, diamonds and gold, the friendly American - even with his martial arts protection? The friend on the bus - hospitality and generosity, his apartment, squalor, art, his being a transvestite - interested in Marco yet not exploiting him? The black girl in the bar, the people in the bar and their drinking, playing billiards? Her speaking French? Apartment, lovemaking?
7. The atmosphere of the fashion show and its glamour, Valerie and her hopes for a commercials contract? The nightclub and its glamour acts? The gay tones? The contrast with the Mc Donalds- style breakfast restaurant with isolated people eating - and the eccentric man opposite Marco putting sugar on everything? The streets, the subway?
8. Marco and his perspective, a pleasant man, friendly, the phone calls to Valeide, her offhand attitude, his hopes, the outings, the friend and his accepting hospitality, the final talk with Valery?
9. Valerie and her glamour, casual, self-preoccupied, the long discussion in the cafe about belief in self and courses, the defence against hurts in the outside world? Her performance, standing him up, her apologies and the farewell?
10. A portrait of New York in the '80s? A satisfying kind of film?
