Anno XXXIII, n. 1 RIVISTA DI STUDI ITALIANI Giugno 2015 CINEMA ASPIRATIONS AND PERSISTENCE IN FELLINI’S FILM LA VOCE DELLA LUNA TONIA CATERINA RIVIELLO Santa Clara University Santa Clara, California In memory of my father, On the 100th anniversary of his birth. Born during WW I, he served Our native country Italy for seven years in WW II. Not only did “soldier Domenico” Serve honorably in the Cavalry, But he saved starving children With suitcases full of bread and food from Southern Italy. Ntroduction IA love of humanity gives Fellini the impetus in La voce della luna (The Voice of the Moon) to portray characters at many stations in life and with uncertain prospects. It is almost as if Fellini wants to give life on film to many sides of himself 1. He does not want to forget any individual from the human race. Each character represented on the screen gives Fellini a longer life, and a fuller life as an artist. We can perhaps try to understand this masterpiece by 1 The Voice of the Moon (1990). La voce della luna (original title), Directed by Federico Fellini. Writing credits (in alphabetical order): Ermanno Cavazzoni, novel; Ermanno Cavazzoni, screenplay; Federico Fellini; Tullio Pinelli. Produced by Bruno Altissimi .... executive producer; Ritza Brown .... associate producer; Mario Cecchi Gori .... producer; Vittorio Cecchi Gori .... producer; André Djaoui .... co-producer; Maurizio Pastrovich .... executive producer; Claudio Saraceni .... executive producer. Original Music by Nicola Piovani. Cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli. 983 TONIA CATERINA RIVIELLO analyzing the lives and feelings of three characters. Ivo Salvini, being the youngest, is presented to us through his childhood memories. The former Prefect Gonnella imposes himself on Ivo and us through satire and irony. He voices Fellini’s dissatisfaction with the corruption and falseness of some local officials in the government. The third character is the Professor of Oboe, a well- established artist who fears for his livelihood because music no longer provides him the rewards that he had expected. He represents Fellini the mature artist, who had to fight against government and private TV stations that threatened to insert commercials during films. Ivo and the Professor struggle with inner voices, from the moon or spirits, while the Prefect struggles with society’s judgments. Fellini also portrays traditional society struggling with the influences of mass culture and high-technology, and the film suggests that individuals who are sensitive to their inner voices are being progressively outnumbered and ignored. Although Fellini has faced the charge of improvising too much in this film, every detail is included to augment the poetics, the ultimate understanding that he wishes the audience will reach after much reflection. He said in interviews that his films do not have explicit “messages” as do billboards or advertising on TV, that his films are intended to be studied as works of art, and that in this film wanted to portray life in smaller cities and towns of the Italian landscape, in the Veneto region. Popular customs are raised to prominence by the maestro’s inclusion of members from every class and age group. Fellini does not wish the audience to come to a common understanding, but rather to reflect upon his work of art with open hearts, minds and souls. The universality of his art and his humility are capable of embracing and helping every viewer, be they well-schooled critics, spiritual beings, or seekers of entertainment. Fellini has respect for the human soul and mind, for individual wishes and aspirations. I. Voices from the Well Even during the opening credits, Ivo hears his last name being called near a well in an open field. The full moon is shining but no one else is nearby to confirm the voices. Before he determines anything he is interrupted by a troop of young men engaged in a “commercial transaction”. A man has collected a fee from other young men to go and spy on a woman who dances half-dressed in her home. Like Ivo, she is listening to a source of inspiration, in her case a radio playing a popular tune. When the men and Ivo watch her dancing, we cannot help seeing in the forefront the static of the television set. Fellini is reminding us that the TV is always on in many homes, even though there is nothing to watch. From this first episode, we can see how even a small town is well provided with different external sources of entertainment and distraction. When first watching the film we may be surprised that someone who loves 984 ASPIRATIONS AND PERSISTENCE IN FELLINI’S FILM LA VOCE DELLA LUNA music and dancing leaves the TV on. Only when we watch the film again and again do we realize that Fellini may have included the TV static to show a ludicrous but common “remedy” to the Professor’s dilemma of continual interruptions. This device of Fellini alerts us to the fact that whatever we see in his films ‒ be it an object or short image ‒ contributes to our understanding of the whole film. Our understanding of Ivo takes a surprising turn when he recites an ancient myth about the origin of the Milky Way to the young men, showing his erudition. The audience may mistakenly perceive him as a very literate and educated person, which is true in a limited sense. More generally, Ivo is curious to find in any situation more than what is immediately apparent 2. A similar curiosity is engendered in the audience by Fellini as Ivo walks with the cemetery caretaker to visit his grandparents’ tombs. Enigmatic lights make whirling circles in the nighttime sky, resembling tiny moons or fireflies, but they are not noticed by any character in the film. Although very transient and barely perceivable, these lights lend a sense of mystery in the blank spaces, a phenomenon that will soon reappear 3. II. The Professor of Oboe The wife of the oboist, Geltrude, is a model extrovert who exemplifies a faithful wife willing to risk traveling at night along a hazardous country road to assist her desperate husband. As the caretaker with Ivo approaches, she reproaches him in an assured manner for giving her husband permission to live temporarily in the cemetery without having obtained the Mayor’s permission. He defensively replies that he did a favor for a friend, her husband, without asking questions. Her direct assuredness is in contrast with her husband’s apprehensive manner and analytical discourse. They form a comic but sympathetic couple. The wife is understanding of her husband’s wishes, in particular his wish to experience how it feels in the next world. She cares for him as normally as possible, and in fact she still remembers to bring him his favorite dishes even if it takes time and patience to please him. She hopes that he will soon come back 2 John Baxter, Fellini: The Biography , New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994, p. 19: “Fellini tells us he was a remote and solitary child at school. ‘I liked to be pitied, to appear unreadable, mysterious. I liked to be misunderstood, to feel myself a victim, unknowable. I lived a life apart, a lonely life in which I looked for famous models like Leopardi…’”. 3 Many of the lights are blinking but others resemble shooting stars, and the ultimate source of these emanations is never revealed, although there is a similarity to the the bicycle lights that are seen approaching the town for the captured-moon broadcast. 985 TONIA CATERINA RIVIELLO home and not be terrified of playing music any longer. The oboist is a professor, who graduated with the highest honors from the conservatory. This learned individual has fears and apprehensions related to the instrument that he plays, especially to a passage of four particular notes 4. This semi-chromatic sequence (sol-la-do-mi) was considered dangerous during the Middle Ages, according to the Professor. He tells three doctors, who mysteriously appear in his home, that as he pauses between notes he hears noises and sees strange characters 5. For musicians who must practice for long hours every day, a rest in between passages may seem necessary and beneficial, but what the Professor finds out is that he has no rest, because of the interjecting disturbances 6. The continuous playing cannot happen because he is playing by himself and needs to take a breath. The Professor of oboe is perhaps an agent for the maestro, Fellini, when he expresses what he was expecting of music and what is dearest to him. The oboist having been a famous professor is acting as an agent of what Ivo’s ultimate dreams are about: joy, serenity, peace of mind, happiness on this earth, and acceptance for everyone. Ivo expresses these dreams with the same significance several times in the film, by the well with Terzio and friends, with the Prefect and the doctor in the piazza, and in the “empty” room adjacent to his bedroom with Nestore. The peacefulness of traditional society is intruded upon by the contemporary commercials and billboards even in the countryside, promoting the existence of TV and its spectacles. These programs have become such a disturbance in everyday life that the “artist” in order to find some solace and peace of mind is tempted to visit the world of the deceased. Fellini shows us how desperate some particularly sensitive and imaginative individuals have become to find refuge in the most unlikely places. We may humorously reflect that the continuous TV static is a potential solution to the oboist’s hazard of spaces between the notes of music which allow strange sounds and characters to intrude upon his peace of mind.