“Don't laugh at Gavino. Hands on your desks! Today is Gavino's turn. Tomorrow will be yours.”Padre padrone [My Father My Master / Father and Master] (Paolo + Vittorio Taviani, 1977)
May
23
freebie: National Sons Day
Father (Omero Antonutti) and son (Saverio Marconi). The son, an adult here, kneels and rests his head on his father's knee. The father, perched on the edge of a bed, looks down on the young man. DP: Mario Masini.
Not a film you can be prepared for, Padre padrone. The author, Gavino Ledda, hands a stick – that stick – to the actor who plays his part. There we are, in Sardinia, beautiful Sardinia. A boy in class, learning. His father barges in: the boy must attend the sheep, or else. From that moment on we become that boy Gavino. Life's cruel on the island, but his father, his master, is worse. But that's how it is, there's sheep to herd. When Gavino enlist in the army, he encounters a new world. The precise world of electronics, other people, other sounds, the Italian #language. When he returns home, he finds his father a small man.
– father
In a 1977 New York Times article the Taviani's are cited as seeing Gavino in the same light as #Truffaut's L'Enfant sauvage (1970) and #Herzog's Kaspar Hauser (Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle) (1974). However, the Sardinian boy's outsiderness is not caused by estrangement, but an immense loneliness that cannot be put into words. This is why Ledda's newfound language is such an important tool. It's not a stick, or a fist, or a dead snake. It's the foundation of his Home.