MIMI METALLURGICO (MIMI, THE METALWORKER)

Italy, 1972, 110 minutes, Colour.
Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangelo Melato.
Directed by Lina Wertmuller.

Mimi Metallurgico (Mimi, The Metalworker) is a Lina Wertmuller socio-political comedy-drama predating Seven Beauties and Swept Away. She uses many of the same cast, especially Giancarlo Giannini who is totally convincing as the Southern peasant worker enmeshed in the seemingly unchangeable conventions of Sicily, set adrift in the industrialised North, succeeding by native cunning and returning home with opened eyes and closed conscience. The atmosphere of Sicily is vividly portrayed, the consistency of its standards (so odd to the outside observer) and the exploitation of Sicilians by the far wings of political left and right. The film works very
well as character study, social document and political tract.

1. The films of Lina Wertmuller? The feminine point of view on Italy, its history, politics? The left-wing look at these issues? Her prominence during the '70s? The place of this film in her series? Her use of Giancarlo Giannini in her films? The variety of his roles in presenting the Italian male?

2. The impact of the film for Italian audiences, non-Italian audiences? The social awareness, social criticism, the presentation of the people, customs, Sicily? Politics, socialism and capitalism, communism?

3. The contrast between southern Italy and the north? The opening sequences and the workers, the type of work, the way of life, old traditions? The transition to Turin and the smog, the traffic, Mimi lost? The smoothness of operations in Turin compared with organisation in the south? The transition at the end of the film to a changed south, modernised, industrialised? The visual presentation of Italy, the ironic presentation?

4. The significance of the title? The focus on Mimi himself, his nickname, as a metalworker? The full title showing him betrayed in his honour? His betrayal from his point of view, his attitude towards betraying others. Betraying his wife? The ironies and implications of the title?

5. The portrait of Sicily at the beginning, poverty, work, the workers, political influence, elections? Family life, squalid conditions, people dressing in black etc.? The role of men e.g. the old man being waited on by the women of the family? Mimi and his strutting around? His influence on the boys of the family? The elections, the votes, the discussions about the elections? Husband and wife relationships, sexuality? The influence of the Church? Audience expectations about an exploration of social conditions in Sicily?

6. The Mafia and the connections in Sicily? Family connections? The contrast with the communists and their propaganda? The work with the sulphur? The votes, the free votes, everybody knowing how others voted, Mind betrayed? His decision to move north?

7. The irony of the conspiracy of the people with the three moles on their faces, the zooming in on these moles and the musical accompaniment? The various people involved in the conspiracy ? Mafia, industrialists, bullies, the Church? The control and conspiracy as seen by Mimi everywhere?

8. Giancarlo Giannini's performance as Mind? Presence, appearance, way of speaking, mannerisms? As an Italian type, Italian male, Sicilian? His place in the family? Male arrogance, tradition?

9. The contrast with his wife, her submissiveness, her fear of sexuality, her prayers? Her attitude towards him and his going away? The ironies of her ignorance and the changes while he was away?

10. The film's comment on work and workers, Mind being sacked because of the votes?

11. The visual change to Turin and the spirit of the north? Mind as lost in the north? The contrast with the two worlds and the comment on Italian social conditions?

12. Mimi Is finding work in the north, the building industry, the bosses, the unions, the accidental death after the jokes, the cover-up, the way of cover-up by taking Mimi out onto the highway, the various implications and the massacre, Mimi's witnessing of it and his almost dying?

13. The massacre and the protection, the family connections? The change in Mimi, his allowing himself to be seduced by capitalism and the intrigues of the
north? The effect on him as a person? His mouthing old principles but his behaviour contradicting this?

14. How attractive a woman was Fiore? Her place in the north, her love for Mimi, the liaison? The strengths of her character, influence on him? The birth of their child and the effect on Mimi, the doting father who wanted his child to have everything? Her politics, the left? Her attitude towards love, sexuality, family ? the contrast with Rosalia?

15. The build-up to his return, his unwillingness, his having to go back quietly, bringing Fiore and the child? His cover up? The discussions about his behaviour, the friends taunting him with homosexuality? The ironies of the truth and the way that he revealed it boastingly to them? The comments on Italian male values?

16. Mimi at work in the south, his changed attitudes, his being the overseer? The Mafia links?

17. His life within the family, his running from Rosalia to Fiore, his exhaustion? His keeping up appearances?

18. The impact of the news about Rosalia's pregnancy, the way that he was told, the melodramatic reaction, his rushing home and his violence towards her? The change in her, change of dress, dancing, the story about the policeman and the licence tests? The irony of his treatment of her and his own behaviour?

19. The build up to his revenge on Rosalia and Amilcare? His seeking out Amalia? Her appearance, size? The comedy and farce in the suave Sicilian seduction of Amalia? The pursuit of her, his words, the locations to which he took her? The room and her succumbing? The irony of the sexuality with the close-ups of her flesh, her being so large and fat? The sexual relationship? Her hurt at discovering the truth? Her complicity in the plan and her demands on him? The build up to the pregnancy, the birth of the child? The irony of the confrontation of the two couples and the situation of the children? The Sicilian way of solving things with the shooting? The effect on them all.

20. Mimi at the end and out in the middle of the desert location, alone? What had happened to him? What had he achieved? A perceptive allegory of social conditions in Italy?