Ciao maschio [VHS]

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Price: $543.78   

Ciao maschio [VHS] Review

Marco Ferreri made some of the most peculiar, idiosyncratic, and controversial films of the twentieth century, and his first film in English, "Bye Bye Monkey," definitely fits those three criteria. Ferreri's films are generally compelling if difficult exercises in surrealism and social commentary. This film is rife with symbolism and interpersonal conflicts, and serves as a commentary on the changing social mores of the 1970s, and particularly focuses on the changing perceptions of women in society. Apparently. Some of the symbolism and content is quite opaque, and there is plenty of room for interpretation. Another interpretation is that it's a film featuring long boring stretches of nothing and a monkey. (That just doesn't sound as good.)

Heading the cast are G rard Depardieu as Lafayette and Marcello Mastroianni as Luigi, two eccentric immigrants living in a New York City that is even more pretentious and rat-infested than in reality. Lafayette lives in an apartment that is apparently half service station bathroom and half rat farm judging from its ambiance, and works as a stagehand and production assistant for a very off-Broadway women's theater group. The seven actresses have a distaste for men in general and Lafayette in particular (though his boorish behavior rightfully earns their scorn,) which leads to my question: if they are all about feminism, why didn't they hire a female stagehand? After Lafayette unwittingly assists in the most distasteful actor's workshop ever, he and Luigi find King Kong's body lying next to the water in front of the World Trade Center towers (the film was made in 1977.) They discover a baby chimpanzee nuzzled up to Kong, and in one of Mastroianni's worst fits of overacting ever, Luigi explains that Lafayette should adopt the chimp because he has allergies to ape hair. (!) When consulted on the issue Andreas Flaxman (James Coco, who steals the show) advises Lafayette to ditch the monkey: "You must get rid of this quadruped immediately....Forget the dictates of your heart!" Thank goodness he doesn't take the advice, as the chimp is by far the most appealing cast member.

As the film progresses Lafayette gets into a weird relationship triangle (I dare not call it a "love triangle" here) with two women. This plot element is truly offbeat, and his decisions are definitely not where my own would have been. Not only does Lafayette not get rid of the monkey he takes it to a registrar and lists it as his child, named "Cornelius Lafayette." This attachment to his chimp is oddly noble, but ends up costing him dearly in the end. I suppose that's a commentary on the nature of love and the fragility of the mortal world, but you interpret for yourself.

Some of the plot defies simple description, and some of the techniques are painful to endure as a viewer. First there is the whistling. Lafayette uses a referee's whistle to scare the rats, his eternal foes, away. He becomes so fond of it he begins to use it to communicate instead of dialogue. This is a bit of a mixed blessing, but I found it profoundly annoying. Along the same grating lines, the film features intermittent musical numbers, the less said of which the better: my only comment is that after the singing you will probably be glad to hear the whistle again. The film also incorporates many other cultural artifacts, mostly through Flaxman's wax museum dedicated to Roman antiquity. I actually enjoyed Coco's part in the film more than any of the other (human) actors, as he is passionate and intense, while still being loon crazy. In a tribute to the big government conspiracy theories so popular after Watergate, Flaxman is visited by a psychological agent from the government who wants him to modernize the look of the wax statues for a more modern time. He demonstrates how Caesar should be made to look like JFK, while Nero is made to look like Nixon in a bit of symbolism that's hard to miss. ("You put Nixon's head on Nero's body!") Nixon is also given a zither (it's not a fiddle anyway) of some sort to hold. This didn't surprise me, as Ferreri's Nixon predilection is seen in some of his other work as well. The film concludes in a genuinely dismaying manner, and careful observers might have seen it coming. In retrospect I should have, but didn't as by the time the ending rolled around I was a distinctly disinterested observer.

The DVD has a difficult menu to get to work correctly, and the disc didn't want to play on one of my DVD players at all. There is a bonus feature of a short snippet from the documentary "Marco Ferreri: The Director Who Came From The Future" included (other parts are scattered all over other works in his catalogue.) The image is fairly good for this vintage of film, and the photography is stunning. Imagery overcomes substance in many places (white gas masks, James Coco bursting into flames, etc.) and from a purely visual perspective the film is interesting. That the plot meanders all over creation and frequently approaches senselessness are its biggest problems, and while fans of 1970s surrealism, Ferreri, Depardieu, Mastroianni, or Coco may glean pleasure from it, "Bye Bye Monkey" is not a film for most viewers.

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