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| a film by Émile Gaudreault |
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| 2003 | 88 mins | Canada |
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| ›› Mambo Italiano |
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| stereotypical gays and Italians served coming out style |
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| available on DVD as part of the Icon Home Entertainment catalogue |
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| screened as part of the 18th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2004 |
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starring: Luke Kirby, Ginette Reno, Paul Sorvino, Mary Walsh, Sophie Lorain, Claudia Ferri, Peter Miller,
Pierrette Robitaille, Lou Vani, Tim Post, Michel Perron, Mark Camacho,
Tara Nicodemo, Diane Lavallée, Dino Tavarone
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Welcome to the world of aspiring scriptwriter Angelo Barberini, only this macho Italiano is
more mambo Italiano, given he's in a relationship with his best friend Nino - and nothing
wrong with that, I hear you add. Only trouble being that he's Italian and Italian men are
not gay you understand - er run that by me again! So these two lovers are just flatmates,
happy in the knowledge that their 'special friendship' will never be known outside
of their closeted existence in Montreal's Little Italy.
And who can blame them, given the Italian-style wobbler Angelo's parents took when he dared to
move out of the family home, leaving his sister Anna rushing to the nearest shrink, only to
return a valium-addicted nervous wreck courtesy of having accidentally caught Angelo and
Nino in acts that went well beyond the call of duty for mere flatmates. But did she
tell anyone - no. Unlike Angelo that is, who has decided that it's time he came straight,
as-it-were, with his parents, only for them to promptly inform Nino's mother Lina
that her macho policeman son is, how you say, banging their son!
Well not for much longer. Given he promptly drops Angelo in favour of the female charms of
Pina Lunetti, thereby confirming his heterosexuality to one and all and inparticular in
the direction of his mother and his law-enforcing, law-abiding, albeit homophobic
fellow officers. Only is this macho Italiano truly back on the straight and narrow?
Put frankly, there was the making of a great film here, given its central premise poses the
question of whether it is better to live your life openly as a gay man in a locality that
is not representative of your sexuality OR to forever conceal your true sexual orientation for
the benefit of social integration? And yet what could have been remains just that, as the
potential here has been cast to the cinematic wind thanks to a series of attempts
at sitcom style wisecracks based on stereotypical imagery.
Not that this is to take anything away from the fine double act of Ginette Reno and Paul Sorvino
as Angelo's domineering parents Maria and Gino Barberini, but it is to say that this is a film
filled with self-loathing, given Luke Kirby as Angelo is neither at ease with his Italian
nor sexual background, let alone those of an effeminate nature, all of which prompts
the question as to just what image of the gay community does this work project
to a largely heterosexual audience?
Yet the irony remains that MAMBO ITALIANO became one of the few gay themed films in recent years
to secure a UK nationwide release and so doing, played to mainstream screens from the 1st October 2004.
And whilst some folk may well have found the result an hilarious cinematic experience, frankly this is
hardly in-your-face gay, having been watered down to the point of projecting zero sexuality, along
the way undermining the central message of acceptance and tolerance by an incessant desire for
a cheap laugh at the expense of a stereotypical portrait of both the Italian
and gay communities. Need more be said?
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| Copyright 2004 David Hall - www.gaycelluloid.com. |
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