Especially on Sunday
The Blue Dog
Both directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci
Snow on Fire
Directed by Marco Tullio Giordana
At the Dendy, Martin Place, from April 21
Reviewed by Pip Hinman

“You're single and lonely. Get yourself a wife or a dog. Come to think of it, a dog's better -- it's more friendly and more faithful.” This was the advice Amleto, the town's shoemaker and barber, didn't want to take. But he just couldn't resist the pleading eyes of that stray dog with the blue spot on its forehead.

The Blue Dog, part one of a trilogy by one of Italy's leading script writers, Tonino Guerra, looks at love and loss and how they are intertwined. Out of the three, I thought this film had the most to say, perhaps because of the sensitivity with which Philippe Noiret played Amleto.

Despite Amleto's initial antipathy to the dog -- “they have lice, fleas, they stink” -- he nevertheless is moved by its decision to adopt him. Having been single all his life and the black sheep of the family, Amleto finds it hard to believe that he may be attractive -- to anything. The dog conjures up a mixture of emotions for Amleto, but when it disappears, he's devastated. But that's not the end of the story!

While the plot of Especially on Sunday was rather more complicated -- perhaps a little bizarre -- it seemed a lot more shallow and perhaps for that reason needed to be “spiced up” with some sex scenes. Love, rather than loss, is taken up in this piece. Anna, a young woman whose Sundays are taken up looking after Marco, a young man recovering from a nervous breakdown, is confronted with a choice: either the easy seduction of Vittorio or loyalty to Marco. She eventually decides to use Vittorio's desire for her to facilitate a breakthrough with Marco.

Snow on Fire examines, from the viewpoint of a lonely widow, the loss of love and companionship. With some tenderness, Maria Maddalena Fellini, sister of the famous director Federico, makes her film debut as Caterina, a widow who experiences both pain and pleasure from watching her newly wed son and daughter-in-law Chiara make love.

Chiara, who notices the peep hole, is initially shocked. But, as she later explains to the priest, if lonely Caterina gained some pleasure from the exercise, she was happy. While Snow on Fire touches on some sensitive family issues, it does so only slightly. A lot is left untouched.

A refreshing aspect of both Especially on Sunday and Snow on Fire is the positive depiction of the lead female characters as strong sexual beings.

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