Delightful Italian film that was shot 5x better than I expected.
Yes, this is a simple movie in many ways ---- showing working class Italians getting away from Rome (by train) for a day's leisure, but real life is simple too. Yet the talent shown by the makers of this film highlight this very effectively, but at the same time convey how interesting simple everyday life can be, too.
One song (repeated twice herein) includes these words (in translation): "Such merry confusion in the wagons of a working class train." "It's a holiday and we are ready for fun."
Words are less important herein than peoples interactions, however, which are conveyed very well visually --- the film isn't dialogue heavy. I think one could almost watch this not knowing Italian even without the subtitles that I read for this. Most of the emotion and verve of this is shown visually and very effectively so. There's a scene where one person throws some punches at another and any dialogue is effectively drowned out by a orchestral band band's music down the street; which, seemingly, is perfectly in rhythm with the scuffle being shown down the street. It is a wonderfully comic scene. Another scene, on a lake, is shot differently too; this one in a dreamlike manner.
I didn't expect a simple film almost about nothing but the simplicities of life to be this well done and be as captivating as it was. And everything that needed to be convey was conveyed in about an hour. What a treat it was to find this, and almost by chance, too.
The main performers portrayed their individual characters well. Maybe you know some of them: Marcello Spada, Lina Gennari, Carlo Petrangeli as Giovanni, Cesare Zoppetti, Maria Denis.
