SI PARLA ITALIANO: LYGON STREET

Australia, 2013, 90 minutes, Colour.
Narrated by Anthony La Paglia.
Directed by Directed by

It is not often that a reviewer watches a film in the place where it was made and is in the title. The Nova cinemas in Lygon street, Carlton, in Melbourne, are not featured at the end of the film but they should be. They draw crowds to Lygon Street to the screenings in their 15 cinema site – where we watched this film in Cinema 8.

While this is very much a Melbourne film, it is interesting in itself as an Australian film, a film about post-World War II migration, especially the Italians (one in six of the migrants in those years). It is interesting because of the issues of migration, the reaction to migrants, issues of language, different culture – and, especially, of food and coffee.

Si Parla Italiano is also highly entertaining. There are quite a few talking heads but, especially, a group of older men sitting around reminiscing both in Italian and in English about what has happened in Lygon Street over a period of 60 years and more. There are also some other speakers, all very articulate, the Australian-born wife of a restaurant owner who brings some down-to-earth reflections on what she has seen in the street during the decades. There are also some guest speakers like Sir James Gobbo, former Governor of Victoria as well as Ralph Bernardi, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, 1979-1980. There is also a guest appearance of Joe Dolce reminiscing about his hit song in 1980, with some visuals of him singing the song, Shaddap Your Face.

Early in the film, there are scenes of the migrants arriving by ship as well is their being put in a camp in the 1950s outside Wodonga where they were isolated from the community, not having an opportunity to get jobs, although some ran away. The main crisis was about food, a Russian cook and his menus and a revolt on the part of the Italians who succeeded in the in their case for being allowed to cook for themselves.

Cooking was one of the key themes for the growth of Lygon Street but, not before the development of different tastes in coffee and the bringing in of espresso machines, the first time in Australia, with some humorous stories about the installation, some touches of rivalry as to who was first, some words from the man whose father established a business bringing in the machines commercially even though some of the Italians did not know how to work them. And there are some stories about the origins of cooking Italian food, setting up Italian restaurants for Italians – and having to call Italy to get details of some of the recipes.

So, by the 1960s and into the 1970s, Lygon Street became a centre for Italians in Melbourne, the opportunity to come and drink coffee, to have an Italian meal, to talk. This had a carry-on effect for friends of the Italians, the Australians coming to frequent Lygon Street and experience Italian food and culture.

There are lots of memories and anecdotes about life in Carlton in those days and the developments which came when Italy won the World Cup in 1982 and thousands descended on Lygon Street to savour the victory. There are pictures of the celebration for the victory in the America’s Cup where people suddenly turned up and celebrated, but at the end of the day the police had to be called in because of drinking and violence, upsetting for the residents of Lygon Street. Further disruption came with young people bringing their cars and using Lygon street as a drag strip. One of the consequences of this was the widening of the foot paths and putting the block down the centre of the street.

Any gangsters? There were some celebrated families but the men around the table continue to say there is no such thing as the Mafia. One of the speakers is the celebrated contemporary Melbourne identity, Mike Gatto, about whom many things are said and surmised. But there were shootings, there were deaths and towards the end of the 1990s, there was concern about Lygon Street. The residents also have many comments about the television series Underbelly (and a number of sequences are incorporated into the film, especially some with that top Italian actor from Melbourne, Vince Colosimo). Many of them agree that Underbelly was an interesting show but they are at pains to indicate how it really didn’t incorporate a lot of the facts and was not realistic.

It is suggested that curiosity about the gangsters, about Underbelly, brought a number of people back to Lygon Street to ask about what it was really like. And so, in the first decade of the 21st-century, people have flocked back to Lygon Street, enjoying the restaurants and the coffee, enjoying the wide foot paths and the possibility for having meals out in the air and sunshine (more in Melbourne than is thought of by those from other states). It is also pointed out that with difficulties in the economies of Europe, and in Italy, a number of young Italians have migrated and a new generation is working in the restaurants of Lygon Street.

Si Parla Italiano, narrated by Anthony La Paglia, offers a fascinating overview of a section of Australian society for more than half a century. It can take its place with other overviews of different aspects of Australian society and culture. While Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, and Acland Street, St Kilda, have acquired a strong reputation for eating and socialising, judging by the crowds outside the Nova, Lygon Street is still very, very popular.