The Italians (45 page)

The movie was given the thumbs-down by most of Italy’s leading critics when it was first shown. It was seen as a tawdry remake of Fellini’s masterpiece,
La dolce vita.
I too disliked the film, but only until about two-thirds of the way through. In the days that followed, its enigmatic plot and the memorable images that Sorrentino had created reverberated in my brain in the way a great creative work should.

La grande bellezza
is open to more than one interpretation. For some, it is a movie about Rome and its seemingly unstoppable decline. In fact, the Oscar was awarded just days after Renzi’s government acted to save the Italian capital from bankruptcy; a few days later, arsenic and asbestos were detected in parts of the water supply. For others,
La grande bellezza
is an existentialist work: a rumination on the purpose, or perhaps purposelessness, of life. But it also caught the spirit of what could be a turning point for Italy—if the Italians are able to make it one.

As the film progresses, Jep, who at one point is dispatched by his editor to the scene of the wreck of the
Costa Concordia,
suggests he might finally write another book. Then, on the advice of an aged, saintly nun who tells him that “roots are important,” he goes back to the scene of his first, apparently unconsummated passion.

The movie ends with a monologue of its hero’s thoughts voiced over images of the aged nun and of Jep standing amid the rocks by the shore:

This is how it always ends, with death. But first there was life, hidden beneath the blah blah blah. It’s all settled beneath the chitter-chatter and the noise: silence and sentiment, emotion and fear, the haggard, inconstant flashes of beauty and then the wretched squalor and miserable humanity—all buried under the cover of the embarrassment of being in the world. Beyond, there is what lies beyond. I don’t deal with what lies beyond.

And then Jep begins to smile as he continues: “Therefore, let this novel begin. After all, it’s just a trick. Yes, it’s just a trick.”

Notes

Chapter One: The Beautiful Country

1
. Luigi Barzini,
The Italians
, reprint edition (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).

Chapter Two: A Violent Past

1
. Einhard,
The Life of Charlemagne,
trans. Samuel Epes Turner (1880).

2
.
Annales Regni Francorum,
trans. Richard E. Sullivan, in
The Coronation of Charlemagne
(1959).

3
. Einhard,
Life of Charlemagne.

Chapter Three: Echoes and Reverberations

1
. Robert D. Putnam with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nonetti,
Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993).

2
. Example taken from John J. Kinder and Vincenzo M. Savini,
Using Italian: A Guide to Contemporary Usage
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

3
. Paolo Conti, “De Rita: Non siamo crudeli. Ma ci sentiamo superiori,”
Corriere della Sera,
January 12, 2010.

4
. Marco Managò,
Italiani in fila
(Rome: Serarcangeli, 2009).

5
. Quoted in Indro Montanelli,
L’Italia dei notabili, 1861–1900
(Milan: Rizzoli, 1973).

Chapter Four: A Hall of Mirrors

1
. Enrico Borghetto and Francesco Visconti, “The Evolution of Italian Law: A Study on Post-Enactment Policy Change Between the First and Second Italian Republic,” paper prepared for the XXVI SISP Annual Meeting, 2012.

2
. “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” John 14:6.

Chapter Five:
Fantasia

1
. Simona Ravizza, “Copiare a scuola è sbagliato. Come spiegarlo ai figli?,”
Corriere della Sera,
May 25, 2013.

2
. The relevant table does not indicate the year to which the figures apply. But other statistics in the report suggest it is 1999.

Chapter Six: Face Values

1
. Sandro Veronesi,
La forza del passato
(Milan: Bompiani, 2000); trans. Alastair McEwen,
The Force of the Past
(London and New York: Fourth Estate, 2004).

2
. “Berlusconi: ‘Mio padre mi ha insegnato ad avere il sole in tasca,’”
Il Giornale,
March 19, 2008.

3
. A video of the song made for the 2008 general election campaign can be watched at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXf-YbsSh0Y.

4
. Silvio Berlusconi Fans Club, www.silvioberlusconifansclub.org/main.asp?IDL=5.

5
. “Fisco: Berlusconi, se tasse oltre 1/3 ti ingegni per elusione; premier visita commando Gdf e scherza, ma non sia ricambiata,”
Ansa,
November 11, 2004.

6
. “Fisco: Berlusconi, se tasse a 50–60% evasione guistificata,”
Ansa,
April 2, 2008.

7
. Brian Solomon, “The Rise and Fall of Silvio Berlusconi’s Fortune,”
Forbes,
November 10, 2011, www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2011/11/10/the-rise-and-fall-of-silvio-berlusconis-fortune/.

8
. Nando Pagnoncelli, “Europee: La crescita di Grillo. Forza Italia ancora sotto il 20 per cento,”
Corriere della Sera,
May 3, 2014.

9
. John Hooper, “Italy’s Web Guru Tastes Power as New Political Movement Goes Viral,”
Guardian,
January 3, 2013.

Chapter Seven: Life as Art

1
. www.mcdonalds.it/azienda/storia/cifre.

2
. “Why Are There No Starbucks in Italy?,”
OutFront,
CNN, March 20, 2013, http://outfront.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/20/outfront-extra-why-are-there-no-starbucks-in-italy/.

3
.
Alberto
Capatti and Massimo Montanari,
La cucina italiana: storia di una cultura
(Rome:
Laterza, 1999); trans. Aine O’Healy,
Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2003).

Chapter Eight:
Gnocchi
on Thursdays

1
.
La vita quotidiana nel 2005.
Istat, April 6, 2007.

2
. Survey conducted by JupiterResearch, quoted in Michael Fitzpatrick, “This Is Social Networking, Italian Style,”
Guardian
, November 6, 2008.

3
. “Household Wealth in the Main OECD Countries from 1980 to 2011: What Do the Data Tell Us?,” OECD, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/EconStatKB/Attachment 540.aspx.

Chapter Nine: Holy Orders

1
. Clara Petacci,
Mussolini segreto,
ed. Mauro Suttora (Milan: Rizzoli, 2009).

2
. Carlo Falconi,
La Chiesa e le organizzazioni cattoliche in Italia, 1945–1955
(Turin: Giulio Einaudi, 1956), quoted in Paul Ginsborg,
A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988
(London: Penguin, 1990).

3
. “Un criterio ideale, un amicizia operativa,” Compagnia delle Opere, www.cdo.org/Portals/0/Pubblicazioni/CDO-BROCHURE_ITA_WEB.pdf.

4
. Giambattista Anastasio, “Il sistema di potere del movimento nelle prime regione d’Italia,”
Il Giorno,
April 22, 2012.

Chapter Ten:
Le Italiane—
Attitudes Change

1
. www.psicolab.net//files/06/12/51/f061251/public/pdfart/11286.pdf.

2
. Norman Douglas,
Old Calabria
(New York: Cosimo Classics, 2007).

3
. Romana Frattini and Paolo Rossi, “
Report sulle donne nell’università italiana.” Meno di Zero
III, nos. 8–9 (Jan.–June 2012).

4
. http://qn.quotidiano.net/2008/09/20/119692-delle_studentesse_italiane.shtml.

Chapter Eleven: Lovers and Sons

1
. Marcantonio Caltabiano, “
L’età al primo rapporto sessuale,”
2013, www.neodemos.it/index.php?file=onenews&form_id_notizia=681.

2
. “The Face of Global Sex 2012,” Durex.

3
. Marcantonio Caltabiano and Letizia Mencarini, “Le prime fasi della vita sessuale e di coppia,”
paper delivered to the Decima Conferenza Nazionale di Statistica, Roma, December 15–16, 2010.

4
. “Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey 2007–2008,” Durex.

5
. Tobias Smollett,
Travels Through France and Italy
(1766). Letter XXVII.

6
. “International Social Survey Programme: Family and Changing Gender Roles II,” 1994.

7
. “PriceRunner Safe Sex League Table,” 2009.

8
. “Il 37 percento delle italiane fedeli al coito interrotto,”
Corriere della Sera,
October 10, 2006.

9
. “The Face of Global Sex 2012,” Durex.

10
. “Mamma,” composed by Cesare Andrea Bixio with Italian lyrics by Bruno Cherubini (1941).

11
.
“Mama
,” lyrics by Harold Barlow and Phil Brito (1946).

12
. Marina D’Amelia,
La Mamma
(Bologna:
Edizioni del Mulino, 2005).

13
. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger,
The Invention of Tradition
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).

14
. Fabrizio Blini,
Mamma mia
(Milan: Baldini Castoldi Dalai, 2007).

15
. Raeleen D’Agostino, “Global Psyche: Forever Mamma’s Boy,”
Psychology Today,
March/April 2008. A transcript of the full interview is accessible at www.roberto-vincenzi.com/intervista_mammismo.htm.

16
. Tim Parks,
An Italian Education
(New York: Grove,
1995).

17
. “Indagine conoscitiva su aspetti sociali e sanitari della prostituzione,” Commissione Affari Sociali, Camera dei Deputati, 1999.

18
. “La popolazione omosessuale nella società italiana,” Istat, May 17, 2012.

Chapter Twelve: Family Matters

1
. Francis X. Rocca, “Italy’s Family Ties: Rome’s Austerity Package Threatens the Country’s Traditional Social
S
tructure,”
Wall Street Journal,
July 15, 2011.

2
. Marco Manacorda and Enrico Moretti, “Why Do Most Italian Young Men Live with Their Parents? Intergenerational Transfers and Household Structure,” discussion paper no. 5116, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, June 2005.