Berlinguer I Love You
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: C-
Making his feature film debut, Roberto Benigni stars in
Giuseppe Bertolucci’s Berlinguer I Love You from back in 1977. The Italian Cinema is often ahead of others
in sexual honesty. Unfortunately, this
includes non-stop sexual obscenity and the beginning of why people find Benigni
so annoying. However, as in some
Hollywood films, this was enough of a hit to launch him on a star career and
world cinema has been suffering ever since.
Forget the nice father of Life Is Beautiful or that
the same critics who loved that film (to the point of gross overpraise) might
have had second thoughts if they had seen this. Those were also the same critics who bashed him for doing Son
Of The Pink Panther a few years before his award-winner, but wow is this
film bad. It is really just a set on
non-stop swearing thinking its funny when it is not. This kind of thing could be funny, but not here. Beginning with a scene in a movie theater,
Benigni goes on his comic reign of terror and some of this seems as loose as
improvisation as if the actors bet each other on who could swear and be
offensive most creatively. The result
in any case is a film that is annoying and shrill. Looks like his version of Pinocchio was no fluke as he
co-wrote this with the director. Oh,
the title refers to someone they are making fun of but supposedly like.
The letterboxed 1.66 X 1 image does have some good color,
but also has detail issues. Just when
it is interesting to look at, someone swears and becomes distracting, and this
is in Italian. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono is passable and a little shrill itself.
The only extra is a trailer, which more than just about any Hollywood
film of the last 25 years shows you more than you need to know.
- Nicholas Sheffo
