This article is an interpretation written by the director for his own film. Original link
From Wilga to Gramsci
Text/Lucino Visconti
As a person who is always interested in the deep causes that disturb the lives of Italians, worries them, and yearn for change, I have always regarded "Southern Issues" as a major source of inspiration for my creations. It is necessary to explain that in the first period of time, I approached through a purely literary approach, or rather discovered this problem: through Wilga's novels. That was when I was preparing for "Sink" in 1940-41. When my first time in the form of a movie - albeit in fascism imposed many restrictions - treatment of the theme of contemporary Italian life, the history of the entire Italian novel seems only "Jiesu A multi-master craftsman" [ Mastro Don Gesualdo and " I Malavoglia " [ I Malavoglia ] as narrative literature can be absorbed by me after reading the memory of my youth. It can be said that I have had plans to adapt this novel [*] into a movie since then. Then the war began, the war brought resistance, the resistance [movement] brought about all the problems in Italy—at least for an intellectual with an educational background like me—new ideas that made me realize that they are not only It's culture, religion, and morality, and it's also a question of social structure.
[*] He didn't say which one (although the adaptation of "The Earth Is Fluctuating" is the latter), maybe he regards these two as a novel, because they are both part of Verga's "Conqueror series".
The differences, contradictions and conflicts between the South and the North began to arouse my interest, and made me walk out of the mysterious South and the two islands as a northerner-at that time, in my eyes, it was almost still Garibaldi leading a thousand people. Unknown territory opened up by the army-[simple] obsessive psychology. Vitorini's "talk" [*] sounded the alarm for us in due course. The mythical imagination in Verga's writings, I used to read with gusto, but was no longer satisfied. I urgently need to understand what historical, economic and social factors constitute the basis of the southern tragic status quo, and it is the enlightenment brought by Gramsci [**] that gave me insight into the truth, although the truth is still present today. It has not been fully studied and clarified. Gramsci convinced me not only that he demonstrated in depth the reasons behind the phenomenon through keen historical-political analysis, that is, the severe social separation of the southern region [una grande disgregazione sociale] and the degeneration of the northern ruling class (colonial style) The characteristics of the development target are different from other important southern issue authors. He also pointed out the direction of action that is truly practical and realistic for solving this core issue concerning our country’s unification: unite northern workers and southern farmers to fight Shatter the lead cloak of the "Industrial and Agricultural Group" [blocco agrario-industriale] [***]. Gramsci further revealed to me that southern intellectuals, once they succeeded in breaking away from the feudal greet [to the ruling class] and the worship of the national bureaucracy, would occupy a special and irreplaceable position in promoting social progress.
[*] "A Conversation in Sicily" is a masterpiece of Vitorini's novel.
[**] As far as this article is concerned, the Gramsci he quoted seems to come entirely from the article "Some Situations on the Southern Question" written in 1926.
[***] wiki: The progressive factory owners in the north accept the government's trade protection measures to increase food prices in exchange for the conservative big landlords in the south to maintain the government's stable rule. The economic policies of the left-wing government that came to power in 1887 promoted the formation of this kind of alliance of interests.
The value of Gramsci's theoretical framework has been verified in the postwar struggle. Moreover, although the situation in the South and Sicily has undergone tremendous changes based on the struggle for land reform, the struggle for autonomy and the struggle for industrialization of the peasant movement, it seems to me that the direction pointed out by this great anti-fascist fighter is still not out of date. . However, some people may ask why I personally focus on exploring the psychological conflicts in the film works of the southern region, without deviating from the traditional presentation of the Verga-style theme of failure or "conquered"? Now I will try to respond to this criticism.
All movies are the product of a specific cultural environment. If you want to deal with issues related to the South, it is impossible for me not to start with Verga's works: because they represent the highest level of art based on this type of content so far. However, if you pay close attention to it, you can see that I have tried to highlight the economic contradiction [status] when creating "The Earth Was Fluctuating" as the root and driving force behind the development of the whole film's plot. In other words, for me, social factors are always the key to interpreting the mental states, psychological mechanisms, and conflicts of characters. Although the conclusions I draw are only on the human level, they must be implemented in specific individuals. This is the root and yeast. However, civic enthusiasm and social issues always flow in the blood of the story.
"Roco" is exactly like this. It is true that brotherhood and mother-child relationship are equally worthy of attention to a similar family from the south and a southerner family. But when I present my [art] choices, I am not limited to collecting particularly inspiring humanity materials, but through a conscious design [let the film] return to the relationship between the north and the south, which is not only a hope What the creators who moved the audience and hoped to trigger their thinking should be done.
Think about it: at this moment, what the authorities want us to see is that southern Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia already have more asphalt roads, factories, land allocated [to farmers], and guaranteed administrative autonomy. I want to make a new look, and I want to hear those lower voices in the real world of the South: When a group, a civilization, only a little leftover in the so-called Italian economic miracle feast, has not yet come out of the spirit and The state of moral isolation, and the typical Italian prejudice, that is, the idea that the South is inferior to the rest of the country is still supporting this isolation, a voice from this reality. In advancing this theme, my approach may be determined or even intense; but no one would say that it is arbitrary or indoctrinated. The stories of the adventures of workers in the south going north for work and opportunities, recorded day by day in news reports, provide me with the best evidence.
However, no matter how convinced I am that the story told by "Roco Brothers" can be included in one of the reports, I still strive to give it enough typicality. Behind the uniqueness of my characters and events that are purely fictitious, I think I have raised a [general] ethical and conceptual question, one that is typical for the historical moment of our current life and for a specific mental state. The question of meaning. [In this state of mind, people] on the one hand still retain their hopes and aspirations for the revival of the South, on the other hand they are constantly pushed into despair due to the lack of assistance, or pushed to various solutions that can only solve the problem one-sidedly. One is that the Southerners as individuals independently integrate into the lives imposed on them by the outside world.
The plot of my film is arranged within this framework-as you can see, it eventually developed into a murder-during which is highlighted an aspect of the characteristics of the southern region that I think is crucial: the concept of honor, Its laws, and its taboos.
Now to answer the second question. The most noble part of the individual's emotional impulse has been frustrated and mocked in front of society. The contemporaryity of this theme is no less than any other theme. But there are at least two ways to deal with it. One way only pursues beauty and pleasure. I will call it non-social, or more accurately anti-social, without hesitation; the other is to put [character's] frustration in the existing social order Within the framework of how to [bring them] to difficulties, the more hopeful and vigorous the work is, the more the true appearance of the social dilemma and the brightness of the opposite vision set off, the more prominent from the artistic processing.
The application of the latter method in Verga's creation and analysis is still in its infancy. My intention is to dig out the root causes of [characters] tragedies along the same root system as Wilga’s method, and put them in a certain process of collapse ("The Earth Is Fluctuating": Economic difficulties of the Valastro family; "Roco Brothers": The moral crisis when the economic situation is stabilized to the greatest extent) The characters at the apex are clearly, even almost preaching [didascalicamente]-I am not afraid of this word-to show up. In "Roco", this man is of course Siro physically. The younger brother who entered the factory not only showed a kind of long-lasting ability to go deep into life without being romantic and fantasizing, but also for the joint and several responsibilities behind various rights. Aroused consciousness.
In this way—although it was not deliberately arranged by me—the ending of "Roco" became a symbolic, or typical, embodiment of my position on southern issues: the worker brothers talked about the future of hometown with the youngest son in the family. , And what his imagination depicts is the ideal of unity of Antonio Gramsci [workers and peasants].
Therefore, it can be seen that although my film is only a psychological exploration of a faithful recurrence of human tragedy, its final conclusion has social and even political significance.
Is this pessimistic? Is it the magnification and far-fetching of various contradictions, and is it intended to provoke controversy?
This is not pessimism. Because my pessimism is only rational pessimism, and will never be volitional. The more reason, with the help of pessimism, digs deeper into the truth of life, the better the will-I think-will be armed with optimism and revolutionary enthusiasm.
What about the magnification of contradictions? This is what art should do. The important thing is that these contradictions should be real. Therefore, I believe that what is given in "Roco Brothers" is not a deliberately biased expression, but that everyone, as long as they have good intentions, can reach a consensus basis: to criticize the phenomenon that needs to be criticized, and to express any of those at the same time. The hope and hope that a free man cannot truly refuse.
Luchino Visconti, "Da Verga a Gramsci." Vie Nuove , no. 42, 1960.
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