‘Bread, Love and Dreams’ or — Tickled Pink?
Apparently some of Italy’s more radical critics were somewhat dismissive of films such as Luigi Comencini’s ‘Bread, Love and Dreams’ (1953), or ‘Pane, Amore e Fantasia’, as despite exhibiting all the distinctive hallmarks of neorealism — location shooting, black and white cinematography, a focus on the lives of the poor and working class — these movies didn’t tend to explore or challenge any of the underlying reasons for such harsh conditions but, instead, presented a more positive view of life where the answer to poverty is love, marriage and family as opposed to political or social change. These films became known as “rosy” or “pink neorealism” and if some critics looked down on them the audiences absolutely loved them making the ‘Bread, Love and…’ series incredibly successful. And it’s easy to see both sides because although pink neorealism is decidedly escapist as opposed to revolutionary it could also be incredibly entertaining, possibly because that combination of documentary realism and farcical comedy undeniably worked.
Marshall Antonio Carotenuto (Vittorio De Sica) arrives in the rural village of Sagliena to take up the position of leading their Carabinieri. Carotenuto’s a middle-aged bachelor with an eye for the ladies so soon falls in love with the town’s midwife, Annarella (Marisa Merlini). Meanwhile, one of Carotenuto’s young officers has fallen in love with Maria De Ritis (Gina Lollobrigida), an impoverished yet free-spirited woman of exceptional beauty known by the townsfolk as ‘la Bersagliera’. However, a combination of distorted gossip and romantic frustration soon results in Carotenuto seemingly courting la Bersagliera, a situation that would leave nobody happy. And people think nothing exciting happens away from the city?
What helps make Comencini’s film so irresistible isn’t just that it’s brimming with life, colour and character but that it’s also consistently funny and smart, something that isn’t a surprise when you consider Comencini was one of the greatest comedy directors Italy ever produced.
There’s a wonderful sequence when la Bersagliera’s mother discovers a 5,000 lira bank note on her kitchen floor. Not knowing it was put there by Carotenuto so her daughter can buy a new dress the mother immediately jumps to the only logical explanation — it’s a miracle performed by St. Anthony! She then runs through the streets shouting the miraculous news and the next thing we know she’s charging all the local women for the opportunity to kiss the divine piece of currency so they too may be similarly blessed. The only thing that puts a stop to her lucrative enterprise is when the local priest turns up stating that when it comes to miracles, and, by extension, the right to profit from them, it’s only the Church that can do that.
So even though ‘Bread, Love and Dreams’ may not possess the savage satirical bite of the later ‘commedia all’italiana’ films it still gets in a few digs at various aspects of Italian life and society.
For example — a well-off, yet miserly, landowner keeps suffering repeated heart-attacks whenever anyone argues with him and the response of his fellow villagers is to simply sit back and watch him crumple to the ground whilst quietly mumbling under the their breaths “May he die. May he die. May he die.” So sure, all this might be “rosy” but roses still have thorns.
The film also isn’t afraid to highlight its own artifice and get a bit “meta”. There’s a moment when Carotenuto, starved of female companionship, is sitting in his office gazing at the photos of models in a glamour magazine just before we cut to a shot of Lollobrigida forlornly languishing in a filthy jail cell next door. Yet despite her grubby dress and dirty feet she’s shot in such a way she might as well posing for a fashion shoot herself.
And Gina Lollobrigida is undoubtedly the real star of the movie, and it’s not just because she is captivatingly gorgeous but more the performance she gives which is a vibrant amalgamation of feisty, cheeky, defiant, naturalistic and totally free. You can understand why she became so famous because every single second she’s on screen, which is fortunately throughout almost the entire movie, the film bursts with energy.
Near the start De Sica’s marshall asks a beggar on the street how he can eat a crust of bread with nothing else to go with it. Ah, the poor man replies, but he is eating the bread with something to add a little flavour — dreams. And that’s pretty much what this movie is too because the fact it’s only a fantasy is also the reason it tastes so good.
